After 15 years in tech, I can finally say that I built an app in just one weekend. And I did it without writing a single line of code.
It’s called Musekat, and you can check it out and play with it here: https://musekat.com/
Musekat lets parents and kids discover art and museums together with fun, personalized audio tours. Just snap a photo of an artwork and its description, enter your child's age, and Musekat will create a 30-45 second audio story to enjoy via Bluetooth headphones.
You can see an example here, taking the Andy Warhol piece, Flowers.
Here's how it works:
As the parent, you can follow along with the text readout on your phone, while your kids remain engrossed in learning more about the world around them. Screen-free learning that actually keeps your kids focused, imagine that.
Right now the stories are narrated by an endlessly curious meerkat named Miko, a character I also invented last week. Here she is:
You can also let her tell you about herself.
I think she’s pretty cute. As it turns out, so do my kids, who have been asking all week to hear “more stories from Miko.” (Not bad for a v1.)
How I Built Musekat
Musekat is AI-powered and AI-native. Most of the v1 was generated entirely through one (very long) context window in ChatGPT, with the help of Cursor as my AI-powered text editor.
Pushing Musekat live was the first time I’ve ever been able to “close the idea loop” and actualize an end-to-end idea using technology, on my own. I can’t tell you how good that feels.
Despite nearly 15 years working with some of the most technical engineering teams and startups, I’ve never learned how to code—and I still can’t. For much of the past decade, this has been a source of frustration for me, being deeply embedded in an industry that values those who can invent and deploy above all else…yet always feeling like that magic superpower was just out of reach.
Over the years, I picked up enough to understand the language of code and the computational thinking needed to solve problems within defined workflows. In the age of AI, I suppose that’s all I needed in the end: Vocab and vibes.
But let’s not downplay the journey. After four years of so-called "professional paratrooping" in and out of new tech spaces—from web3 hacker houses to AI demo nights—I realized I needed to focus on a mission that resonated personally. Writing 100 blog posts and 100,000 words helped me refine my thoughts and, last Friday, gave me the clarity to write the starter prompt that launched Musekat.
Help Me Test Musekat!
It's been about two weeks since the v0 app launched, so you're looking at a v1, in case you're trying to calibrate how far you can get in a "two week sprint" in the age of AI.
But here’s what I’ve learned from teaching AI 101 all fall: Publishing isn’t the end of a project—it’s the beginning. In a world where anyone can be a developer, building in public means embracing iteration, learning from feedback, and growing together. That’s where you come in.
Try the App
Take Miko with you on your next museum trip with your kids—or even at home with artwork in your living room! Musekat has been a hit with my kids (ages 2 and 4.5) at the Met Museum and the Museum of Natural History, but in theory, it works anywhere—even with artwork at home! (Seriously, give it a try on the art in your living room. It’s kind of magical.)Share Your Museum Habits
Whether you’ve used the app or not, I’d also love to learn more about how you and your kids experience museums. Take this quick survey to share more about your museum visits, whether your kids own headphones, and how Musekat could fit into your routine.
If you’d like, you can also email your thoughts or ideas directly to me (+ Miko) at hello@musekat.com.
Special shout-out to my husband, Jason, for turning our living room into a cozy hack last weekend, tackling GitHub issues with me, and being the kind of partner who’ll hop in a taxi from the Met Museum, rush home, and grab a laptop just to get a website’s SSL certificate up and running. To Jackie, Jake, and Bryan for enabling my AI obsession all fall; Fred, for yanking this meerkat out of her burrow; and Alex, for scheming up an excuse to finally get me to demo the damn thing—thank you.
