‘Vibe coding just piles up tech debt faster until…’: Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu challenges Y Combinator’s Garry Tan

Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu on Tuesday launched a sharp critique of the growing hype around “biocoding,” questioning its long-term viability and challenging Silicon Valley bigwigs promoting the trend. In a post on X, Vembu questioned why companies pushing tokenized apps claim they threaten traditional software developers even as Zoho continues to record rapid customer growth.

“If our business is the first to be competed by crypto apps, why are we seeing such rapid customer growth (over 50%) right now?” books. He also noted the lack of major “coded” alternatives in important categories such as email, spreadsheets, accounting or messaging.

Fembo said his personal R&D efforts focus on combining compiler and AI technologies to achieve a “quantum leap in programmer productivity” while maintaining security, privacy and compliance, areas he believes biometric programming is neglecting. “Without these safeguards, overzealous programming builds up technology debt faster and faster until the whole thing collapses,” he warned.

“Of course, for people like Gary Tan, tech debt should be mortgaged to unsuspecting acquirers,” Fembo added, in a direct swipe at Y Combinator CEO Gary Tan.

Fembo ended his post with a bold challenge, declaring: “Let me bet with Gary Tan: We will outsell and outsmart his amazing programming companies!”

In a post on X, Tan claimed that Zoho’s business will be the first to be challenged by people who build their own custom software using multiple AI-driven programming and app creation platforms.

“Why pay $30/seat/month for over-bundled SaaS when even non-ops people can soon program a custom solution in a weekend?” he asked.

These statements sparked debate across the tech community, and once again raised questions about hype cycles, sustainable engineering, and whether AI-powered shortcuts can replace robust, long-term software development.

“Effective programming sounds exciting, but from enterprise experience, it’s rarely a plug-and-play win. Large organizations choose ecosystems (Microsoft, Zoho) for predictable SLAs, integrations, and low long-term maintenance. Build quickly but plan for expansion and impact > hype,” one user wrote.

Another user commented: “I love the focus on sustainable technology and real productivity gains, this is the future of programming!”

“Finally, some local companies really have the ability to stand up and challenge a company in Silicon Valley, but Gary Tan has good intentions,” commented a third user.