Behind the product: Replit | Amjad Masad (co-founder and CEO)

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Amjad Masad is the co-founder and CEO of Replit, a browser-based coding environment that allows anyone to write and deploy code. Replit has 34 million users globally and is one of the fastest-growing developer communities in the world. Prior to Replit, Amjad worked at Facebook, where he led the JavaScript infrastructure team and contributed to popular open-source developer tools. Additionally, he played a key role as a founding engineer at the online coding school Codecademy. In our conversation, Amjad shares:

• A live demo of Replit in action

• How Replit’s AI agent can build full-stack web applications from a simple text prompt

• The implications of AI-powered development for product managers, designers, and engineers

• How this might reshape companies and careers

• Why being “generative” will become an increasingly valuable skill

• “Amjad’s law” and how learning to debug AI-generated code is becoming ever more valuable

• Much more

Some takeaways:

1. The most valuable skill in the future will be the ability to generate ideas quickly. Don’t just be the person who implements ideas—be the one who creates them. Train yourself to generate lots of ideas. As you develop this skill, you’ll find it’s easier to produce and execute on those ideas because you can build these ideas into products faster than ever before.

2. Forget the old approach to learning to code. The new model involves learning how to interact with AI tools that help you generate and troubleshoot code. In six months, the value of even minimal coding knowledge doubles—so stay on top of AI-native tools that complement your creativity and productivity, especially if you’re focused on product development.

3. Use AI-powered platforms for quick prototyping. For example, a sales engineer can rapidly spin up applications to showcase how your product works with APIs or other integrations. This gives clients and teams tangible demos that can drive faster decisions and align expectations.

4. The scale of AI growth is hard for humans to grasp. If you’re working with AI, get comfortable with exponential change. Don’t just keep doing things the way you’ve always done them. In a year, things will look dramatically different—stay ready to pivot.

5. Keep things simple at the start. Whether you’re building a product or creating a tool, use minimalist prompts to get the ball rolling. You can always iterate and refine based on feedback—it’s better to start with something that works and improve over time than to over-engineer from the start.

6. AI is powerful, but it’s not perfect. To make it work for you, you need to understand how it all fits together: servers, APIs, databases, etc. The better you can diagnose and fix issues, the more effective you’ll be in the evolving landscape. AI might be the future, but it still needs humans to make sure everything runs smoothly.

7. Expect software consumption to skyrocket as costs drop. This is the “Jevons paradox” in action: as the cost of building software goes down, the volume of software being created will go up. Expect more people to launch businesses, create tools, and iterate on existing products. The cost-effectiveness of AI-driven development will make it easier for anyone to start building something new.

Where to find Amjad Masad:

• X: https://x.com/amasad

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amjadmasad/

• Website: https://amasad.me/

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Introduction to Amjad Masad and Replit

(02:41) The vision and challenges of Replit

(06:50) Replit’s growth and user stories

(10:49) Demo of Replit’s capabilities

(16:51) Building and iterating with Replit

(25:04) Real-world applications and use cases

(30:13) The technology stack

(33:48) The evolution of Replit and its capabilities

(39:36) The future of AI in software development

(44:04) Skills for the future: generative thinking and coding

(47:26) Amjad’s law

(50:36) Replit’s new developments and future plans

Referenced:

• Replit: https://replit.com/

• Cursor: https://www.cursor.com

• Aman Mathur on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aman-mathur/

• Node: https://nodejs.org/en

• Claude: https://claude.ai/

• Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/

• Wasm: https://webassembly.org/

• Figma: https://www.figma.com/

• Codecademy: https://www.codecademy.com/

• Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/news

• Paul Graham’s website: https://www.paulgraham.com/

• Jevons paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox

• Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/

• Open AI: https://openai.com/

• Amjad’s tweet about “society of models”: https://x.com/amasad/status/1568941103709290496

• About HCI: https://www.designdisciplin.com/p/hci-profession

• Taylor Swift’s website: https://www.taylorswift.com/

• Andrew Wilkinson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/awilkinson/

• Haya Odeh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haya-odeh-b0725928/

• Amjad’s law: https://x.com/snowmaker/status/1847377464705896544

• Ray Kurzweil’s website: https://www.thekurzweillibrary.com/

• God of the gaps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_of_the_gaps

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.