I got rejected from YC (4x)…. now my side hustle is worth $1.16B
About This Episode
Amjad Masad, the founder and CEO of Replit, discusses his journey from being an immigrant coder in Jordan to building a billion-dollar platform. The conversation explores the massive shift in software development caused by AI agents, which allow non-technical individuals to build complex applications in minutes.
Episode Description
Show Notes
- 0:00Replit origin story
- 9:27Replit's 10-year overnight success
- 12:27Rejected 4x by YC
- 17:28Personal essays from Paul Graham
- 20:17"i hacked into my university to change my grades"
- 25:55Rickrolling into YC
- 35:25Shaan builds a food tracking app in 30 seconds
- 43:19Magic School: An AI application for educators 4M users in 1 year
- 47:31Amjad on Agents
- 49:53Building moats in a goldrush
- 54:53Replit is Shopify for software creators
- 1:05:11The most gangster story in Silicon Valley
Links
Check Out Shaan's Stuff
Check Out Sam's Stuff
Key Takeaways
Adopt the 'Do What Makes the Best Story' heuristic when making difficult life or business decisions to build reputation and momentum.
Target 'inefficient' industries like education or legacy services with AI-wrapped tools to achieve rapid revenue growth that exceeds traditional SaaS benchmarks.
Shift focus from teaching technical skills (like 100 days of coding) to providing immediate utility through natural language interfaces to capture the 'citizen developer' market.
Business Ideas Mentioned
SMS-Based AI Accountability Coach
AI & Automation
AI Agent Wrappers for Inefficient Industries
SaaS
AI-Integrated SDR Automation
AI & Automation