Founder Of The Week: Cien Solon

• Cien Solon is the founder and CEO of LaunchLemonade, bringing a background in product development, digital strategy and startup growth, with a focus on making complex technology more human and accessible.
• She launched LaunchLemonade as a no-code AI platform that enables users to build, deploy and monetise intelligent workflow and decision-making AI agents, helping businesses automate tasks and drive real revenue growth.
• After recognising that many non-technical professionals felt excluded from AI adoption, she built LaunchLemonade specifically for that audience, growing the platform from early experiments into a product with over 6,000 users.
• Despite facing industry bias as a young Filipina woman in tech, she has overcome key challenges through strong community support and founder networks, which have helped strengthen both her leadership and LaunchLemonade’s momentum.

Tell Me About Yourself and LaunchLemonade

I’m Cien Solon, CEO and Founder of LaunchLemonade, a no-code AI platform that allows users to build, deploy and monetise intelligent workflow and decision-making AI agents. My career has spanned product development, digital strategy and startup growth, translating complex technology into practical, human-first solutions.

In 2024, I founded LaunchLemonade to empower businesses of any size to build intelligent, revenue-generating AI agents. Through a simple interface users can create customised AI agents trained on their own knowledge and data, automating repetitive tasks, generating content and making smarter decisions for real revenue growth.

What Inspired You To Start LaunchLemonade? What Problem Were You Trying To Solve?

I’d been experimenting with AI solutions for years. When generative AI became more accessible to build on top of – after ChatGPT and open source LLMs launched – I spotted the lag in adoption from non-techies. What struck me wasn’t how powerful the tools were, but how uncomfortable they were to many smart people who felt excluded around them. So, I started building for them.

What started as hackathons in my kitchen with friends, eventually led to LaunchLemonade being born, which rapidly evolved into a fast-scaling platform that now has over 6,000 users!

What Has Been Your Biggest Challenge So Far? How Did You Overcome It?

Being a young Filipina woman, I’ve had to tackle the usual biases, structural challenges and barriers faced by many women in tech. Carving out a space and making an impact was difficult to kickstart, but a community that has fully supported my mission has been vital to overcoming these barriers.

Support from female and diverse founder groups, such as Female Founders Rise, Diversity X and BAE HQ have helped LaunchLemonade grow and prosper, but also developed my own ability as CEO to fully understand the ins-and-outs of running a business and chasing investment.

Can You Describe A Pivotal Moment That Significantly Shaped the Direction of LaunchLemonade?

I think the biggest pivotal moment of LaunchLemonade was its inception. What started just as an experiment quickly grew to something larger. I was able to launch with practically nothing and social media posting, bootstrapping the business through its first two years, quickly growing a user base and community that truly believed in the product. With the business being built on that communal formulation and keeping that finger on the pulse of what users were saying has shaped LaunchLemonade into the product it is today.

We took AI from “something you read about” to practical, everyday agents that help non-technical teams move faster, stay on-brand and stop drowning in repetitive tasks.

How Do You Define Success? 

For Your Business: Success means LaunchLemonade becoming a globally-trusted innovative space where users know they can access clear and accessible human-first AI systems. This means equitable, inclusive and democratised AI creation where complex technology is translated into practical solutions.

As a Founder: Success on a personal level is empowering even non-tech SMEs to build, launch and run AI agents. I’d love to be known to have somehow played a part in forming a generation who see AI as a lever they can harness; a future where everyone has some form of AI literacy to effectively utilise it.

What Advice Would You Give To Someone Thinking About Launching Their Own Startup?

Don’t wait until you feel “ready” to take action – start now. Progress favours those who learn out loud, test ideas early, and build momentum through doing.

Learning in public is a powerful accelerator. Sharing what you’re building, what you’re learning, and where you’re getting stuck increases visibility and confidence. It opens the door to feedback, collaboration, and opportunities that rarely emerge when work stays private. You gain real-world insight that helps you move faster, while confidence grows through action and deeper problem-solving.

Over time, credibility, expertise and leadership follow. Reputation is built through connection and community, not perfection. Your perspective, ideas and experiences matter and the key is being willing to act and share them without hesitation.

What’s Next ForLaunchLemonade? Any Exciting Developments We Should Watch Out For?

We have recently successfully oversubscribed during our pre-seed investment round, with one of Europe’s biggest angel syndicates amongst those investing $480,000. This new funding will go into developing our built-in marketplace, enabling users to build and then sell AI agents they produce.

With this, we aim to develop this AI economy, allowing users to participate more fully into this. By unlocking the true potential of marketplace functionality, we’re aiming to build a cohesive, transactional, autonomous and collaborative ecosystem for AI creation and deployment, that really cements our ethos of democratising AI.

Want to be featured as TechRound’s Founder of the Week? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.

Founder’s Five with Cien Solon

Being a successful entrepreneur and startup founder is an impressive feat, but who is the woman behind LaunchLemonade? Here’s our exclusive “Founder’s Five” with Cien Solon.

1. Favourite Business Tool?

Claude Code.

2. One Lesson You Learned the Hard Way?

There will be times where the competitiveness of the market will make you feel uncomfortable, whether from investors or customers. But, I’ve trained myself to change the insecurity into drive and kept pushing to build something that solves problems.

3. One Future Trend You’re Watching?

The pace of innovation – this industry is moving so fast that there’s openness to new voices, different perspectives and people building from the margins. More people are becoming open to asking “How can I use AI to do what I do better?” This change in outlook in even non-techy backgrounds is exciting and can only bring greater, more diverse AI usage.

4. One Quote You Live By?

“No one gets left behind.” From every product decision and speaking engagement, to choosing to keep LaunchLemonade affordable, to mentoring teams from underrepresented backgrounds, this mantra reminded me that I’m here to shift what’s possible for people who’ve been locked out.

5. One Book or Podcast You Recommend?

Growth Hacking by Raymond Fong – learn how to find customers through experimentation. You can build agents but you can’t build customers.

Want to be featured as TechRound’s Founder of the Week? Know someone who deserves to be recognised as a founder making waves in the startup landscape? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.