Sheena Leven says she learned two important lessons when building her first company, CodeSee. The first lesson was knowing the difference between what businesses need versus what sounds visionary; the second was that the fundamentals always apply, even with new technologies such as AI.
“Security, compliance, reliability, quality, those things don’t just go away for enterprise applications,” she said.
After CodeSee was acquired in 2024, Leven decided that she wanted to build a product that would let business owners, even those without technical backgrounds, build AI applications. She teamed up with AI researcher Sean Robinson, and last October, the two launched Empromptu, an AI service that businesses can use to build AI applications.
Empromptu claims all a user has to do is tell the platform’s AI chatbot what they want — like a new HTML or JavaScript app — and the tool will go ahead and build it. It also provides LLM tools to help users if they want to fine-tune any results, and also lets companies add AI features to their own existing code bases.
Leven doesn’t consider it a vibe-coding platform, though she does look to compete with companies like Replit and Lovable.
“Vibe coding is excellent for quick experiments, but Empromptu is what turns those experiments into real software,” she said. Empromptu, she continued, “turns ideas into production features with built-in evaluation, governance, and self-improvement,” she said. “You ship to real customers, with real data and complete control. If vibe coding is the brainstorm, Empromptu is the build.”
On Tuesday, the company said it had raised $2 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Precursor Ventures. Zeal Capital, Alumni Ventures, Founders Edge and South Loop also participated.
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Leven said the fresh capital will be used for hiring staff and developing new proprietary technology.
The company is hoping to target businesses launching in regulated industries or “deeply complex” areas that involve capturing data and creating applications — software that services hotels, for example.
Overall, Leven hopes that founders feel their businesses can be transformed without having to learn the technical skills to take advantage of the AI revolution.
“It’s just like any other skill,” Leven said. “And the beauty of this skill is that AI can help you learn it along the way.”
