Amjad Masad (@amasad), founder and CEO of Replit, and Yohei Nakajima (@yoheinakajima), Managing Partner at Untapped Capital, joined Village Global partner Ben Casnocha for a live masterclass with Village Global founders.
Takeaways:
- AI agents are rapidly evolving, with coding and deep research agents showing the most traction today. But general-purpose assistants are still brittle — trip-planning and high-context tasks remain hard.
- Replit Agent shows how quickly full-stack applications can be built today, sometimes in under an hour — even by non-technical users. What matters most isn’t a CS degree, it’s traits like curiosity, grit, and systems thinking.
- Many AI startups are too quick to claim “moats” when most don’t really have one. True defensibility requires deep domain insight, unique data, and the right founder traits.
- The rise of vertical AI agents is compelling — specialists outperform general agents for now. A real AGI will change everything, and it’s so disruptive it’s not even worth planning around.
- The best investors still look for timeless traits: hard-charging, resourceful founders, attacking stagnant industries. AI changes a lot — but not what makes a great early-stage team.
- Tools like Replit are making vibe coding (yes, even for non-coders) a superpower. From executive dashboards to lightweight Crunchbase clones, agents are already creating real enterprise value.
- Don’t over-engineer AI use cases. Start with internal tools or things you’ve always wanted to build. The best projects often come from personal curiosity and side projects.
Resources mentioned:
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