# Repaint

Aiolum story: https://aiolum.com/story/repaint/ · added 2026-11-06 · updated 2026-11-06

**In short.** Repaint (AI website builder and small-business platform, run by chat, United States): Hundreds of people built sites in the first month, March 2026. Evidence grade E: no revenue figure was checked. Team: 2 co-founders, Ben Shumaker and Izak Fritz; the Y Combinator page lists a team size of 2. Launched February 2026; still running.

AI website builder and small-business platform, run by chat · United States · AI-native · team of 2 to 10 · still running · group: Build software with AI

- Outcome: Hundreds of people built sites in the first month, March 2026 (evidence grade of the headline number: E; no revenue figure)
- Launch: February 2026; months from launch to the outcome: 1
- Team: 2 co-founders, Ben Shumaker and Izak Fritz; the Y Combinator page lists a team size of 2
- Outside funding: Y Combinator, Summer 2023 batch; amount not published in the sources
- Main factor: Third product
- Meters, 1 to 4: evidence strength 1, copyable pattern 2, capital needed 2
- Tags: AI-native, Small team, Funded, Running, B2B, Website builders

Links:

- Visit repaint.com: https://repaint.com/

**The product.** A website builder in which the user chats with an AI. The AI interviews the owner about the business, can research the company online and import an existing site, then generates a complete multi-page website that the owner edits by typing requests. Since October 2026 the same chat can also add payments, customer accounts, email sending, bookings, memberships, online courses and dashboards, all hosted by Repaint.

**Why it worked.** The two founders had already built a drag-and-drop website builder during Y Combinator in 2023 and could not grow it. They write that the AI wave was making manual no-code tools obsolete. Their new product aims at small businesses that want a finished marketing site, not at developers who want an app, and charges a flat monthly price instead of per-edit credits.

Evidence grades: A = disclosed by a public company, a filing or a payment processor, or verified by one; B = two or more independent reports agree, or a journalist confirmed it; C = a founder claim that no one else verified; D = reported, not verified: one founder claim or a third-party estimate with no second source; E = no revenue figure found, so the headline is a non-money fact and the other facts carry their own grades; calc = computed on this page from graded facts.

## Summary

Repaint is an AI website builder: a tool in which a language model writes and changes the code of a website from typed requests. The user does not see the code. Repaint hosts the site, and since October 2026 it also offers payment processing (taking card payments on the website), customer logins, email sending and data storage, so the chat can build an online store or a booking system as well.

It is made by Ben Shumaker and Izak Fritz, two friends from Michigan who joined Y Combinator in the Summer 2023 batch with a different product, AutoEmber, a drag-and-drop website editor. In March 2025 they launched an observability tool, Vigilant, under the same company. Repaint opened about a month before their launch post of 21 March 2026, which says hundreds of people had made sites with it by then.

This story has no revenue figure. The headline is the founders' own statement about early use in March 2026. The company publishes three paid plans; the founders said on 9 October 2026 that they start at US$25 a month.

## Pricing

Repaint prices on its pricing page, read 6 November 2026 (grade C)

| Plan | Per month, billed yearly (US$) | Per month, billed monthly (US$) | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plus |  | 25 | standard weekly AI usage, 1 seat, 3 custom domains, 5,000 emails a month |
| Pro |  | 100 | 4 times the AI usage of Plus, 5 seats, 10 custom domains, 50,000 emails a month |
| Max |  | 200 | 8 times the AI usage of Plus, unlimited seats, 25 custom domains, 250,000 emails a month |

The page shows monthly billing only and no yearly price. Every plan has a 14-day free trial; after the trial, sites go offline until a plan is paid. AI use is a weekly allowance shared by the workspace, and paid plans can buy extra credits that do not expire. Card payments taken on customer sites cost 2.9% plus 30 US cents each in the United States. The founders wrote on 9 October 2026 that existing subscriptions keep their old price.

## How much revenue does Repaint make? The numbers, graded

A two-founder Y Combinator company on its third product, an AI website builder opened in early 2026, with three paid plans and no published revenue

| Fact | Value | Grade | Note | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Founders | Ben Shumaker and Izak Fritz | C | Y Combinator company page and the founders' launch posts. Shumaker was a lead game designer; Fritz built a crypto trading platform at Cove Markets, which their 2023 post says Robinhood acquired in 2021. | [3, 5] |
| Team size | 2 | C | Y Combinator company page, "team_size" 2, read 6 November 2026. The March 2026 launch post begins "We're Ben and Izak". | [3, 4] |
| Year founded and batch | 2023, Y Combinator Summer 2023 | C | Y Combinator company page. No source gives the amount invested. | [3] |
| Early use | hundreds of people made sites in about the first month | C | Launch post of 21 March 2026: "We opened Repaint about a month ago, and we've had hundreds of people make sites". No exact number is given. | [4] |
| Earlier products of the same company | AutoEmber (July 2023), Vigilant (March 2025) | C | Both were launched on Y Combinator's launch page under the same company. The 2026 post says of the first one: "we never got it off the ground". | [5, 6, 4] |
| Plans | Plus, Pro and Max, monthly | C | The pricing page lists Plus at US$25, Pro at US$100 and Max at US$200 a month, with a 14-day free trial. | [2] |
| Free plan replaced by a trial | 9 October 2026 | C | Founder's post: "We're replacing the permanent free plan with a two-week free trial, so we can offer more capable AI models to everyone sustainably." | [8] |
| AI model providers | Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and open-source models | C | Help page, updated 28 September 2026: it "picks the one that's best suited to each task". | [10] |
| Code export | not offered | C | Help page: "Repaint doesn't offer code export." Data can be exported, for example as CSV files. | [11] |
| Months from opening to the headline | 1 | calc | Calculated: February 2026 (about a month before the 21 March 2026 post) to March 2026. | [4] |

How to read this table: grade C is what the founders or the company's own pages say, including the Y Combinator profile, which the company edits. A "calc" value was computed on this page. No value is grade A or B, and there is no revenue figure.

## When did Repaint launch, and how did it grow? Timeline

From a drag-and-drop editor in 2023, through an observability tool in 2025, to an AI website builder in 2026. Each entry carries its grade.

- **31 July 2023** (grade C [5]): During Y Combinator Summer 2023, the founders launch AutoEmber, a visual design tool that makes real websites, free to try.
- **28 March 2025** (grade C [6]): The same company launches Vigilant, a tool for application logs, errors and metrics.
- **February 2026** (grade C [4]): Repaint, the AI website builder, opens to users.
- **19 to 21 March 2026** (grade C [7, 4]): Launch post on the company blog, then on Y Combinator's launch page, saying hundreds of people have made sites.
- **29 June 2026** (grade C [9]): Editing limits rise about two to three times at the same price, after the AI agent starts mixing in cheaper models.
- **9 October 2026** (grade C [8]): The Repaint Platform adds payments, email, customer accounts and data storage; three paid plans replace the free plan.

## Why did Repaint work?

### A third product on years of website-editor work

The founders write that their failed drag-and-drop builder taught them web layout, editor design and why people give up on building a site. Repaint puts an AI agent on top of that knowledge instead of a manual editor.

### Marketing sites for people who do not code

The launch post argues that general AI coding tools make single pages, show code and hosting details, and charge per edit. Repaint hides the code, builds the whole site with the owner's real content and charges a flat monthly price.

### From website to business platform

In October 2026 the same chat gained payments, customer accounts, email and data storage, so a small business can run a store, bookings or memberships without connecting other tools.

## How it was built

These details come from the company's help pages, blog and home page source. They are grade C unless marked.

- The AI uses models from Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, plus open-source models, chosen per task: the strongest for planning, faster ones for small edits, image models for pictures.
- In June 2026 the founders changed how the agent works and mixed in cheaper models, which let them raise editing limits about two to three times at the same price.
- Sites run only on Repaint's own platform; code export is not offered, data export is.
- The home page source loads Next.js files and a PostHog analytics component (visible in the page source, grade B).

Sources: [10, 9, 11, 1]

## Who tried this before Repaint, and why did they fail?

Four companies in our database of failed startups promised that anyone could get a website or custom software without a developer, and failed. The values below are from that database and are not independently verified.

The failed startups come from our database of dead startups, retold here in our own words; Its entries are AI-assisted summaries of public sources, so they carry no evidence grade.

### The Grid (2014 to 2020; funding US$4.7M; cause: Product/Tech Failure)

- Promise: An AI that designs your website for you.
- Why it died: The AI of the time could not produce consistent, good-looking designs, and rivals offered polished builders.
- Record: 

### Sosh (2012 to 2013; funding US$2.3M; cause: No Market Need)

- Promise: A drag-and-drop website builder that removes the handoff between designer and developer.
- Why it died: Too complex for beginners and too rigid for professionals, and the generated code was hard to work with.
- Record: 

### WebCake (2013 to 2016; funding US$120K; cause: Competition)

- Promise: An easy all-in-one web creation tool for small and medium businesses.
- Why it died: It could not stand out against Wix and Squarespace and found no further funding.
- Record: 

### Builder.ai (2016 to 2025; funding US$445M; cause: Unit Economics)

- Promise: Custom apps built by AI for non-technical founders.
- Why it died: Most of the work was done by people, so each build cost more than it earned.
- Record: 

## What changed

The Grid promised an AI web designer in 2014, before language models could write good code. Sosh and the founders' own AutoEmber asked users to learn a visual editor. Builder.ai sold AI but paid people to do the work. Repaint uses current language models that do write the site, and the founders write that this made their manual editor obsolete.

The WebCake risk remains: Wix, Squarespace and many AI builders compete for the same small businesses, and the model makers' prices set much of Repaint's cost.

## Can one person copy Repaint now?

**Verdict: The product, yes; the head start, partly.**

A solo founder can build a chat website builder on rented models and hosting. Repaint's founders came to it with two earlier products, years of editor work and Y Combinator backing, which a newcomer would not have.

1. Pick one narrow user, here small businesses that need a marketing site, not developers.
2. Let the AI interview the owner and import existing content, so the first draft uses real information.
3. Use several model providers and route easy edits to cheaper models, so a flat monthly price stays affordable.
4. Add the paid features a small business needs next, such as payments and bookings, once sites are live.

**What is still open.** Builders for one trade, such as clinics, salons or law firms, which Repaint's example pages already target, and site migration from older builders.

## What could go wrong for Repaint?

- **What is not verified.** No revenue, paying-customer or exact user figure was found. We looked for a payment-processor profile, a founder post with a dated figure, a filing and press coverage. The headline rests on one founder statement on Y Combinator's launch page, 21 March 2026: "hundreds of people" made sites in about the first month, with no exact number. A reader could look for a dated founder update or a payment-processor profile.
- **Third product of the company.** The same Y Combinator company launched AutoEmber in July 2023 and Vigilant in March 2025 before Repaint. The founders say the first one "never got it off the ground"; no source says what became of Vigilant. The Y Combinator page still lists a team of 2.
- **Competition.** The founders name Lovable, Bolt, Replit, Wix and Squarespace as the tools people use now. This site already has AI website builder stories such as Neopress, 1ClickWebsite.ai and MakewebAI; Repaint's difference is its focus on finished small-business sites and the built-in payments and bookings.
- **Dependence on model providers.** The help page says the product runs on models from Anthropic, OpenAI and Google plus open-source models. The founders replaced the free plan in October 2026 "so we can offer more capable AI models to everyone sustainably", which shows that model costs drive the prices.
- **Website cloning and sample sites.** A feature page offers to "Clone any website" from its URL. The same page says users may publish only content they have the rights to use and that the company answers takedown requests. The home page shows sample sites for invented businesses with figures such as "500+ People coached"; these are demonstrations, not claims about Repaint. Sites cannot be exported as code, so a customer who leaves must rebuild elsewhere.

## Sources

1. Repaint home page: Build Your Business Online by Chatting with AI — https://repaint.com/ (grade C). Read in full on 6 November 2026, including the page source.
2. Repaint pricing page: Plus, Pro, and Max Plans — https://repaint.com/pricing (grade C). Read in full on 6 November 2026.
3. Y Combinator company page: Repaint, Build a website by chatting with AI — https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/repaint (grade C). Read in full on 6 November 2026 with its embedded data: founders, year founded, team size, batch and launch posts.
4. Launch YC, 21 March 2026: Repaint: The AI Website Builder, by Ben Shumaker — https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/PkR-repaint-the-ai-website-builder (grade C). Read in full in the data embedded in the Y Combinator company page.
5. Launch YC, 31 July 2023: AutoEmber - A visual design tool for making real websites — https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/J9E-autoember-a-visual-design-tool-for-making-real-websites (grade C). Read in full in the data embedded in the Y Combinator company page.
6. Launch YC, 28 March 2025: Vigilant - Observability for modern software teams — https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/NAX-vigilant-observability-for-modern-software-teams (grade C). Read in full in the data embedded in the Y Combinator company page.
7. Repaint blog, 19 March 2026: Introducing Repaint - The AI Website Builder — https://repaint.com/blog/introducing-repaint (grade C). Read in full.
8. Repaint blog, 9 October 2026: Introducing the Repaint Platform — https://repaint.com/blog/introducing-the-repaint-platform (grade C). Read in full.
9. Repaint blog, 29 June 2026: Expanded Editing Limits for Everyone — https://repaint.com/blog/expanded-editing-limits (grade C). Read in full.
10. Repaint help: What AI models does Repaint use? — https://repaint.com/help/ai-model (grade C). Read in full; page updated 28 September 2026.
11. Repaint help: Can I export my code or data? — https://repaint.com/help/export-code (grade C). Read in full.
12. Repaint feature page: AI Website Cloner — https://repaint.com/features/ai-website-cloner (grade C). Read in full, including its questions on legality.
13. Database of failed startups, local export — /method/#dead (grade C). Local export. AI-written summaries, not independently verified. Source for the failed predecessors.

Contact: aiolum@livyden.com. Run Repaint? Send corrections or a verified figure to aiolum@livyden.com (subject: Correction: Repaint).