A new Y Combinator–backed product that people initially thought was deliberately unserious and gimmicky, dubbing it "rage bait" rather than a real tool, has big ambitions for helping developers increase productivity.
What Chad IDE Claims to Do
Chad, a "brainrot IDE," released in November, initially drew skepticism online because many users believed it to be an April Fools' joke given its name and value proposition, TechCrunch reported.
Chad IDE is, in fact, a real product, however, in spite of the initial surprise and backlash surrounding its announcement, founder Richard Wang told TechCrunch.
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Chad Labs' product is an Integrated Development Environment that allows developers to engage in so-called "brainrot" activities while waiting for AI tasks to finish, TechCrunch reported. It "integrates your brainrot vices with your agentic coding workflow" thus increasing productivity while reducing "the friction of context switching," according to Y Combinator's launch page for Chad.
Developers can "gamble while you code. Watch TikToks. Swipe on Tinder," and "play minigames," Chad's website states. "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."
Industry Figures Criticize the Launch
"It's becoming clear that while rage bait might occasionally work as a marketing strategy, it really should not be employed as a product strategy," TBPN podcast co-host Jordi Hays said critically of Chad's launch on LinkedIn.
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"On one hand it's funny," Hays penned before pivoting his criticism to Y Combinator: "On the other hand, what are we doing here and why does this belong on the official YC account?"
Negative reactions followed Y Combinator's announcement of Chad on X. "Deeply uninteresting founders who have not lived," one X user said, adding, "SF is a lost soul."
Another user asked, "What are we doing here [YC CEO Garry Tan]? … If my feed shows the yc logo at all I'm just expecting a new disappointment at this point."
A third posted, "Meanwhile there are people out there actually building real shit."
Founder Rejects Rage-Bait Interpretation
Wang told TechCrunch that critics misinterpreted the intent of the product, clarifying that Chad IDE was not designed to be rage bait as the founders hope the IDE becomes a widely used AI-powered coding tool for consumer-app developers. The goal is to provide developers with a consumer-app-style experience within their coding environment, Wang told TechCrunch.
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Developers' Idle Time as a Productivity Problem
Developers working with AI coding assistants often face idle stretches each time the system generates code, according to Chad and internal research conducted with contributors from institutions including Stanford, Columbia, Caltech, Meta, Amazon, PwC, YC founders, and startup engineering teams.
Chad's internal research found that 87% of developers check their phones during AI code generation, often turning brief glances into five to 10 minutes of scrolling and causing performance losses. To combat this, Chad says its Active Generation Monitoring keeps developers engaged and focused throughout code generation, demonstrating that "waiting" doesn't have to mean "idle."
Closed Beta Status
Chad is currently in a closed beta and requires an invite to access, Wang told TechCrunch. Clad Labs plans to open access to the broader public after building an initial community of users.
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