‘Chad: The Brainrot IDE’ is a new Y Combinator-backed product so wild, people thought it was fake

When former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo spoke at TechCrunch Disrupt, someone from the audience asked him if HBO’s hit satire “Silicon Valley” would be revived. Costolo, who was a writer for the show, essentially answered no (at timestamp 38:17).

While the writers talk about that regularly, he said, they don’t pursue it because today’s actual Silicon Valley is so bizarre, it can’t be parodied.  

The latest case in point is a new company called Clad Labs that launched out of Y Combinator this week. Clad’s product is so outside-the-box that people thought it was an April Fools’ joke in November. 

But it’s a real product, founder Richard Wang told TechCrunch. The product is called “Chad: The Brainrot IDE.” It is yet another vibe coding integrated development environment — an IDE is the software developers use to code — but with a twist. While waiting for the AI coding tool to finish its task, the developer can mess around with their favorite brainrot activities within a window of the IDE. 

Or, as the company’s website advertises: “Gamble while you code. Watch TikToks. Swipe on Tinder. Play minigames. This isn’t a joke — it’s Chad IDE, and it’s solving the biggest productivity problem in AI-powered development that nobody’s talking about.” 

The founders say their IDE increases productivity by helping with “context switching.” Their argument is, by doing your brainrot activities within the IDE itself, as soon as the AI is done with the task, you’ll get right back to work rather than be focused on your phone or browser. 

Reaction on X was mixed. While some people thought it was a fake satire, others thought it was a good — or a terrible — idea.

Like it or hate it, everyone had an opinion, even Jordi Hays, co-host of the enthusiastically pro-tech podcast TBPN. Hays penned a post on the product called, “Rage Baiting is for Losers.” In it he said of Chad IDE: “On one hand it’s funny. On the other hand, what are we doing here and why does this belong on the official YC account?” 

He argued that products like Chad IDE and Cluely have moved rage bait from a marketing gimmick to a “product strategy” and “it really should not be.” He urged YC to start teaching founders that “rage baiting is for losers.” 

This is particularly interesting advice from someone who, as a founder, had mastered viral marketing without rage. Hays and his wife Sarah founded Party Round, a funding startup that went viral for their friendly marketing gimmicks like launching NFT versions of top “helpful” VCs. (Party Round rebranded to Capital and sold to Rho in 2024.) 

Wang tells TechCrunch what the haters don’t get about his brainrot IDE is that it wasn’t intended to be rage bait. The founders hope it becomes a genuinely beloved AI vibe coder for consumer-app type developers. They want to give these folks a consumer app-like experience in an IDE.

While the product is real, it’s not available to the public yet.

”We’re currently in a closed beta,” Wang said. Right now, Chad is attempting to build a “community” of users who like the idea. Clad Labs hopes to open the product to the public soon, but for now, users must get an invite from someone already in the beta.

No doubt there’s a certain type of developer who would love Chad. But whatever the future holds for this product, one thing is true: It is nearly impossible to parody Silicon Valley these days.