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'This guy is delulu': Internet slams Silicon Valley CEO for attacking Zoho, backs Sridhar Vembu
Sridhar Vembu responded to Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan who said Zoho "would be first to be competed away" by those who vibe-code.
Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan on Tuesday hit out at Zoho, saying the Indian tech company "would be first to be competed away" because of the rising trend of "vibe-coding". Vibe-coding is the practice of amateurs asking an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to create code for specific tasks instead of traditional coding that is done by software engineers.
"Zoho’s business would be first to be competed away by people building their own custom software built by people using @Replit @emergentlabs and @Taskade," Tan said in an X post.
"Why pay $30/seat/month for over-bundled SaaS when soon even non-tech ops ppl can vibe-code a custom solution in a weekend?"
The Silicon Valley CEO's attack on Zoho comes after the company's founder and former CEO, Sridhar Vembu, spoke against vibe-coding.
"All code is magic until it is lowered by the compiler to another form of code and that code is magic until .. magic all the way down. Trying to unravel some of the magic," Vembu said on X on Monday. The Indian tech leader's post was seen as a point against Google CEO Sundar Pichai's thoughts on vibe-coding. Pichai recently said coding has become more accessible to people, thanks to AI.
"It's making coding so much more enjoyable," Pichai said on the Google for Developers podcast.
“Things are getting more approachable. It's getting exciting again. And the amazing thing is it's only going to get better.”
Zoho's Sridhar Vembu hits back at Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan
Vembu responded to Tan's remarks, waging a bet with the Y Combinator CEO.
"Let me make a bet with Garry Tan: we will outshine and outlast his vibe coding companies!" Vembu said on X.
"If our business would be the first to be competed away by vibe-coded apps, why are we seeing such rapid customer growth (exceeding 50%) right now? And why don't we see vibe-coded email or spreadsheet or accounting app or messaging apps yet?"
Vembu further slammed Garry Tan, saying for people like him (Tan), “tech debt is to be pawned off on unsuspecting acquirers”.
Internet backs Sridhar Vembu
A large number of X users in the tech and AI ecosystem backed Sridhar Vembu and called out the American venture capitalist, with one people even terming him “delusional” for his take on Zoho.
“You are overestimating vibe-coding,” another person said.
“A very poor take on enterprise SaaS and its enshrined complexities. YC should know better. I hate to see what nightmarish security issues arise from these vibe coded apps putting the entire company at risk,” an X user who works at Google said.
