🚀 Vibe Coding Is the New Side Hustle Skill You Need

🤖 What Just Happened?

Israeli developer Maor Shlomo launched Base44—an AI-powered “vibe coding” platform that builds full apps from text prompts—as a side project. Six months later, Wix bought it for $80 million in cash. Yep—cash. No VC rounds. No hype. Just pure AI hustle.

🌱 From One Side Hustle to Big Time

• Grown to 250,000 users in half a year

• Profitable: netted $189,000 in profit last month, despite paying high AI processing bills

• Started bootstrapped, with zero outside funding

• Grew fast purely through word of mouth—no marketing budget

• Team was small (8 people), yet landed major partners like eToro and SimilarWeb

🛠️ What Is “Vibe Coding”?

• No-code app builder powered by AI

• You type what you want (e.g., “app that sends SMS reminders”)

• AI builds backend, database, user interface—everything

• Turn ideas into working apps without knowing how to code

🚀 Why Wix Did It

• Wix already helps people build websites—with drag-and-drop tools

• Base44 adds an AI-powered app maker, giving Wix users more power

• For Wix, the acquisition was a cheap ($80M vs. multi-billion-dollar deals) way to add cutting-edge AI for app creation.

💡 Why You Should Care (Non-Tech Version)

1. Building apps is getting back to basics—just chat or type what you need

2. You don’t need a tech degree to launch successful AI startups

3. Side hustle potential: One person + AI = real business value

4. Platforms you use may soon build your apps for you

5. AI is accelerating creative independence—tools empower individuals to build faster

💡 Try This Today

Prompt-based mini-app idea:

• Think of something useful you wish existed:
  “Reminds me to water plants via email every week.”

• Try a no-code “vibe coder” like, Draftbit, Bubble, or Thunkable—then prompt:
  “Build a plant watering reminder app with weekly emails.”

✅ You don’t need to code—just a prompt. It’s a fast, fun way to test an idea.

🧩 Level Up Your Vibe Coding Skills

As vibe coding grows, here are popular tools to get you started, based on Madhukar Kumar’s guide:

• Full-stack, visual AI platforms:

  • Tempo Labs – Build UIs, backend, auth, and payment systems visually

  • Bolt.new / Lovable.dev – Convert Figma designs into full-stack web apps with prompts

• Code-editor / AI assistants:

  • Cursor Composer – VS Code-like flow with prompt-based code changes

  • Aider – Terminal/Slack assistant for bug fixes and feature building

  • Claude Code – Reads your whole repo, lets you chat and refine, great for Day 0 and Day 1+

Pro tip: Start easy. If you're new, try Lovable.dev. As you level up, explore Tempo or Cursor for deeper control.