The Evolving Role of Software Engineers and the Impact of AI

Amjad Masad is the co-founder and CEO of Replit, an online platform designed for collaborative coding in multiple programming languages. Replit boasts over 30m users, has secured $200M in venture funding, and was recently valued at $1.2B. Before Replit, Amjad was a Software Engineer at Facebook, and a Founding Engineer at Codecademy.

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In today’s episode, we discuss:

• How AI is reshaping the software landscape
• Bridging the gap between ideas and software
• Why YC almost rejected Replit four times
• Replit’s fundraising difficulties, and how Paul Graham helped
• The secret lever Replit pulled to scale ahead of its competition
• Replit’s impressive distribution engine

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Referenced:

• 7 Powers: https://www.amazon.com/7-Powers-Foundations-Business-Strategy/dp/0998116319/
• Codecademy: https://www.codecademy.com/
• Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/
• I Am a Strange Loop: https://www.amazon.com/Am-Strange-Loop-Douglas-Hofstadter/dp/0465030793
• Mythical Man-Month: https://www.amazon.com/Mythical-Man-Month-Software-Engineering-Anniversary/dp/0201835959
• On the Naturalness of Software: https://people.inf.ethz.ch/suz/publications/natural.pdf
• OpenAI: https://openai.com/
• Paul Graham: https://twitter.com/paulg
• Python: https://www.python.org/
• Read Write Own: https://www.amazon.com/Read-Write-Own-Building-Internet/dp/0593731387/
• Replit: https://replit.com/
• Roy Bahat: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roybahat/
• Sam Altman: https://twitter.com/sama
• The Innovator’s Dilemma: https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Technologies-Management-Innovation/dp/1633691780/
• The Little Schemer: https://www.amazon.com/Little-Schemer-Daniel-P-Friedman/dp/0262560992/
• Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/

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Where to find Amjad Masad:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amjadmasad
• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/amasad

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Where to find Todd Jackson:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddj0/
• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/tjack

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Where to find First Round Capital:

• Website: https://firstround.com/
• First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstround
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital
• This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:31) Replit’s origin story

(08:24) Starting Facebook’s JavaScript infrastructure team

(10:36) Amjad’s unique path to entrepreneurship

(16:04) How Replit got its early users

(17:00) Replit’s fundraising difficulties

(17:54) Why YC almost rejected Replit four times

(20:23) Building Replit’s distribution engine

(22:08) Drivers of Replit’s growth

(27:41) What Silicon Valley gets wrong

(30:09) Replit’s monetization strategy

(32:29) Integrating AI into the platform

(36:18) The impact of AI on software engineering

(39:40) Defining the new “software creator” role

(41:43) How to keep up with developments in AI

(46:24) Replit’s goals for 2024

(48:11) Advice for founders: defy conventional wisdom

(51:12) Amjad’s 4 favorite books