vly.ai

What do they actually do

vly.ai turns a plain‑English description of an app into a fully deployed web application (frontend, backend, database, and auth) without writing code. It generates projects on a standard stack—React + Vite for the frontend, Convex for realtime backend/database, Tailwind for styling—and handles hosting and custom domains out of the box (docs, features).

Users can iterate with an AI agent and a point‑and‑click visual editor, collaborate in real time (live editing, cursors, roles), and manage assets (docs note a 15 MB per‑asset upload limit). The company highlights non‑technical founders, hackathon teams, and internal tool builders as core users, and mentions an “experts + automation” option for higher‑risk or custom projects (features, docs, homepage, YC profile).

Who are their target customer(s)

• Non‑technical founder who needs an MVP fast: Wants a deployed product from a plain‑English brief but worries about long‑term ownership and whether they can export or move off the platform later (docs, YC, analysis on code export gap).
• Early‑stage startup or hackathon team needing a working demo quickly: Needs a full frontend/backend prototype immediately and has limited engineering time to fix edge cases or iterate after generation (docs, homepage, demo video).
• Product manager or ops lead building internal tools/dashboards: Wants to avoid pulling engineers off core work but still needs reliable auth, data handling, and predictable performance as usage grows (features, roadmap).
• Agency or freelance developer on tight client timelines: Wants to cut build time with automation but is concerned about client demands for full code ownership, bespoke integrations, or enterprise SLAs that aren’t yet clearly productized (homepage, analysis).
• Compliance‑sensitive or larger customers evaluating for production use: Require clear pricing, export/ejection paths, performance guarantees, and reviewable security practices; current public materials treat these as roadmap items (roadmap, YC).

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Target non‑technical founders and active hackathon teams via YC and startup communities; run guided demos and offer a free, human‑verified build to remove launch risk, backed by live examples and demos (docs, YC, demo video).
• First 50: Sponsor a few visible hackathons and run short workshops/webinars that build an MVP in 20–30 minutes; publish recordings and step‑by‑step docs to drive signups and social proof (demo video, docs).
• First 100: Recruit agencies/freelancers as channel partners with white‑label or expert‑assisted delivery and a paid pilot; publish clear pilot/pricing and code‑ownership options to remove buyer friction (YC, analysis, roadmap).

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

vly.ai sits in the low‑code/no‑code application platform category, which analysts size in the multi‑tens of billions today—roughly $30–45B globally based on widely cited reports (Grand View Research, MarketsandMarkets).

Bottom-up calculation:

U.S. serviceable demand can be sketched from ~33.3M small businesses plus ~5.5M business applications filed in 2023, of which ~1.8M are likely employer formations; using 5–10% of SMBs as potential internal‑tool adopters yields roughly 3.5–5.4M potential projects per year (SBA, Census BFS, EIG).

Assumptions:

• 5–10% of U.S. SMBs are realistic candidates for custom internal apps built via LCNC/AI.
• Use the ~1.8M likely‑employer business applications as a proxy for high‑intent MVP projects.
• ARPA depends on product packaging and enterprise features (export, SLAs, security).

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Bubble: Popular visual no‑code app builder covering frontend, backend, and hosting with an AI assistant. Strong for non‑technical founders but limited options to export/run apps outside Bubble’s platform (features, hosting/export note).
• Anvil: Full‑stack web app platform using a drag‑and‑drop designer plus Python for front‑ and back‑end; supports code export and self‑hosting via the open‑source App Server—good when ownership/on‑prem matter but expects some coding comfort (features, export/self‑hosting).
• Builder.ai: Combines AI tooling with human delivery teams to ship custom apps, including source‑code handover and enterprise support; operates more like a software agency and can be costlier/slower than pure‑AI pitches suggest (product, report).
• Replit: Online coding environment with AI agents that can generate, refine, and deploy apps from prompts; strong for technical teams that want code and instant hosting, more developer‑centric than a no‑code flow (AI/Agent, deployments).
• Retool: Low‑code internal tools platform built to connect to existing databases and enterprise systems, with self‑hosting/SLAs; great for internal dashboards but not aimed at plain‑English MVPs for consumer apps (homepage, integrations/use cases).