If you have an idea for a software product right now, you usually face a frustrating choice. You can spend months learning to write complex code, or you can pay someone else thousands of dollars to do it for you. Christel Buchanan thinks both of those options belong in the past. Following the public launch of ChatAndBuild in May 2025, over 150,000 users are currently creating digital tools just by having a conversation.
A Mandarin-Speaking Father Built a Pac-Man Clone in Minutes
The core premise behind this new platform is surprisingly straightforward. Users simply type a request into a chat interface, and the system handles the heavy lifting of generating a fully functional product in the background. You could ask for an astrology quiz, a habit tracker, or a basic inventory management tool. The software removes the friction of managing packages, configuring environments, and setting up dependencies that typically discourage beginners.
For Buchanan, the ultimate test of this technology happened inside her own home. Her father does not have a formal programming background and prefers to communicate in Mandarin rather than English. Using her early software prototypes, he successfully created a working Mahjong app and a replica of Pac-Man without touching a single line of traditional code. That moment proved the interface could bridge both technical and language gaps simultaneously.
While the front end looks like a simple messaging thread, the back end integrates with standard tech stacks that professional developers already trust. The system currently supports a variety of essential building blocks for modern software:
- Direct connections to GitHub for version control and code storage
- Interface generation compatible with Figma design standards
- Database management and authentication powered by Supabase
- Advanced logic processing handled through Anthropic’s Claude AI
“Why can’t a grandmom in Thailand chat and build? Why can’t my dad, who speaks Mandarin, chat and build? Why is that only someone with a Stanford degree in the Bay Area gets to build something?”
— Christel Buchanan, Founder and CEO of ChatAndBuild
Buchanan often compares this transition to the rise of social media platforms a decade ago. Before mobile photo sharing became universal, publishing visual content required expensive cameras and editing software. By removing the technical barriers, she believes we are standing on the edge of the next wave of internet creativity.
The Tech Layoffs That Created a New Generation of Founders
The journey to building this startup began during a turbulent period for the global technology sector. Buchanan previously served as the regional head of content for Asia, the Middle East, and Africa at Twitter. In November 2022, she was impacted by the broad staff reductions that swept through the company following its high-profile acquisition. Rather than rushing into another corporate role, she began exploring how artificial intelligence could serve as a great equalizer for independent creators.
She was not alone in this career pivot. Throughout 2023, a total of 191,000 tech workers lost their jobs across the United States. Many of these displaced professionals turned toward independent projects, setting the stage for a decentralized builder movement. However, stepping out on your own requires capital, and the current funding environment remains deeply uneven for minority entrepreneurs.
| Industry Metric | Reported Data (2023-2024) |
|---|---|
| Tech Layoffs (2023) | 191,000 U.S. workers displaced |
| Black Founder Funding Decline (2023) | 71% decrease compared to 2022 levels |
| Black Founder Funding Share (2024) | 0.48% of total U.S. venture capital |
The reality of recent venture funding statistics for Black founders highlights why accessible tools are so essential. In 2023, funding for Black entrepreneurs failed to reach the one billion dollar mark for the first time since 2016. By 2024, that group received less than half a percent of all startup capital distributed in the United States. When traditional financial gates remain closed, giving people the ability to create their own software for free becomes a powerful alternative to chasing venture capital.
Your AI Agent Should Actually Belong to You
As excitement around generative models grows, a quiet but serious debate is emerging regarding data rights. Buchanan frequently warns that current models are designed to absorb user inputs in ways that essentially strip individuals of their intellectual property. When you spend weeks training a custom bot on a closed corporate server, you do not actually own the resulting intelligence.
Her solution to this problem involves a concept called Non-Fungible Agents. Unlike standard chatbots that reset or remain trapped inside a host application, these are decentralized artificial intelligence entities that possess their own memory. Because they exist on a blockchain framework, the creator retains absolute ownership over the agent they have trained. You can build it, train it on your proprietary data, and eventually trade or sell it just like a physical asset.
This technical foundation relies on the proposed BAP-578 token standard, which was specifically designed for the BNB Chain ecosystem. Walter Lee from BNB Chain’s business development team recently noted that their network is rapidly becoming a central hub for this kind of innovation, publicly welcoming the partnership to accelerate on-chain software creation.
If you are bringing software from an idea to a live product, the intellectual property matters just as much as the code itself. Buchanan predicts that this conversation around digital ownership will dominate the industry over the next two years, forcing major providers to rethink how they handle user-generated intelligence.
The Goal of One Billion Coders by the End of the Decade
Right now, the barrier to entry for software creation remains stubbornly high. Buchanan points to data showing there are only an estimated five million global programmers actively working today. Her stated ambition is to push that number to one billion by transforming how humans interact with machines.
Achieving that scale requires building a community, not just a product interface. In September 2025, the company is hosting a global festival for builders in Singapore during the Token2049 conference. By gathering independent creators, designers, and blockchain enthusiasts in one place, they hope to showcase exactly what happens when technical hurdles disappear.
There are still major design questions left to answer. The industry currently lacks a standardized graphical user interface for artificial intelligence, leaving most platforms feeling bare and utilitarian. Whoever figures out the most intuitive way for humans to command these systems will likely dictate the next era of computing.
To support this growing ecosystem, the platform maintains a few core principles for its users:
- Provide plain language descriptions instead of exact syntax commands
- Retain the right to export your agent’s memory to other platforms
- Focus on the specific problem you want to solve rather than the architecture
Since becoming accessible to the general public earlier this year, the momentum has only accelerated. The era of the traditional #TechStartup is changing, and platforms like #ChatAndBuild are proving that the most valuable skill moving forward is not knowing how to write syntax. The real advantage belongs to anyone who can clearly imagine a solution and simply ask a machine to build it.
