As the startup world continues to evolve, a growing number of venture capitalists are embracing the power of AI coding assistants to help young companies develop innovative products. According to leading VCs, these cutting-edge tools are proving invaluable for startups navigating the challenges of rapid prototyping and iterative development.
“It’s not pie in the sky. It’s in the near future, but it’s not today,” says Corinne Riley, partner at Greylock, who spoke on the topic at TechCrunch Disrupt. Riley notes that many of Greylock’s portfolio companies already allow the use of coding assistants during technical interviews for prospective hires.
The potential impact of these AI-powered tools extends far beyond the hiring process. Elizabeth Yin, co-founder and general partner of Hustle Fund, believes that early-stage startups should leverage any tool that enables them to “hack together sample products to move faster” – even if those initial iterations require careful rebuilding later.
“One of the major challenges of the early stages, you don’t quite know exactly what problem you’re solving and quite exactly what the ICP [ideal customer profile] is and quite exactly what they need,” Yin explains. “So you’re going to end up throwing out a lot of work. So the faster you can go, and the faster you can iterate, the better in order to learn quickly.”
This sentiment is echoed by Renata Quintini, co-founder of early-stage venture firm Renegade Partners. Quintini advises startups to “use that leverage” of AI coding assistants when it comes to discovering product-market fit or testing new ideas, though she cautions against over-optimization at the seed stage.
As startups founded in 2024 and beyond increasingly leverage AI development processes, the stage may be set for the emergence of the first “AI agent workforce” within the coding community itself. This convergence of human and machine intelligence could profoundly reshape the startup landscape, ushering in a new era of rapid innovation and product development.
