Shanea Leven says her journey with her first startup, CodeSee, taught her two big lessons: business owners need practical solutions, not just big ideas, and the basics of good software security, reliability, and quality still matter, even with AI.
After CodeSee was acquired in 2024, she decided to use those lessons to build something new. She teamed up with AI researcher Sean Robinson, and together they launched Empromptu in October, aiming to help people without technical skills create real AI applications.
Empromptu works by allowing users to simply explain what they want to build — maybe a classification tool or a recommendation system — and the platform generates it automatically. For those who want more control, it offers tools for fine-tuning results and even lets companies plug AI features directly into their existing code. The goal is to make AI development feel less intimidating and more accessible to everyday business owners.
Leven says Empromptu isn’t just a “vibe-coding” tool, even though it competes with platforms like Replit and Lovable. She believes vibe-coding is great for quick ideas, but Empromptu is designed to turn those ideas into real, production-ready software. She describes the platform as something that helps users build features they can confidently ship to actual customers, with proper evaluation, safeguards, and room for improvement.
The company announced on Tuesday that it has raised $2 million in pre-seed funding led by Precursor Ventures. Other investors, including Zeal Capital, Alumni Ventures, Founders Edge, and South Loop, also joined the round, giving Empromptu fresh support as it works to bring simple, reliable AI-building tools to more businesses.