Vibecoding and Digital Entrepreneurship
For digital entrepreneurs and policymakers, this paper provides causal evidence that GenAI coding tools complement rather than replace technical expertise, with benefits concentrated among those with STEM backgrounds.
This paper studies how GenAI-enabled coding automation ('vibecoding') affects digital entrepreneurship. It finds that vibecoding increases first-time launches and shortens time to launch, but economically viable entry rises only where it augments rather than fully automates product development, with an 11% increase in viable entry in partially exposed segments, driven by individuals with STEM backgrounds.
As generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) automates coding tasks and expands access to technical resources, this paper examines how GenAI-enabled coding automation, colloquially known as "vibecoding," affects digital entrepreneurial entry and venture performance. We exploit ex-ante variation in ventures' exposure to vibecoding based on the product characteristics of their initial launches and estimate difference-in-differences models around the diffusion of GenAI coding tools. Vibecoding increases first-time launches and shortens time to launch, but economically viable entry rises only where vibecoding augments, rather than fully automates, product development. In these partially exposed product segments, viable entry increases by 11%, driven entirely by ventures founded by individuals with STEM education or work experience, especially those whose most recent employment was outside middle management. Among ventures launched before GenAI became widely accessible, performance gains similarly concentrate among partially exposed ventures with engineering-intensive initial teams. Together, these results suggest that GenAI-enabled coding automation does not eliminate the value of technical expertise. Instead, vibecoding creates the greatest value when it complements internal engineering capabilities, allowing ventures to delegate lower-level coding tasks to GenAI while shifting human effort toward higher-level problem solving and dynamic adaptation.