Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Inside Bolt: From near-death to ~$40m ARR in 5 months—one of the fastest-growing products in history | Eric Simons (founder & CEO of StackBlitz)

Mar 13, 2025

Eric Simons shares the astounding journey of Bolt, which skyrocketed to $40 million in annual recurring revenue in just five months. The discussion reveals the innovative WebContainer technology that sets Bolt apart, making coding faster and more reliable. Insights into how AI is reshaping product management roles are also explored. Eric recounts his scrappy past, including squatting at AOL’s HQ, and emphasizes the importance of effective communication in rapidly growing teams. Discover the future of product development and the evolving landscape of tech careers.

01:28:51

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Quick takeaways

Bolt's extraordinary growth from zero to $40 million ARR in just five months stems from years of foundational work and innovative technology.

The WebContainer technology, developed over seven years, enables a faster, more reliable AI coding experience that distinguishes Bolt from competitors.

The democratization of software development allows non-developers to create applications, potentially reshaping product teams and company structures in the AI era.

Deep dives

Remarkable Growth Trajectory

The company experienced unprecedented growth rates, progressing from zero to $20 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) within just two months of launching its product, Bolt. It has since surpassed $30 million in ARR and has ambitious forecasts to reach $100 million within the year. This success has positioned the company among the fastest-growing startups in history, a category that includes only a select few. The company's founder emphasizes that while the growth appears rapid, it is rooted in years of foundational work that preceded the product's release.

Intro

6min

Rocketing to Success: The Bolt Journey

5min

Bolting Development: Innovations and Challenges

29min

Innovations and Insights in Data Integration and Product Development

4min

Daily Communication Practices for Team Cohesion

2min

Streamlining Product Development with Effective Tools

3min

Unlocking Product Development with Bolt

5min

The Evolving Role of Product Managers in Tech

20min

Innovations in Development with Bolt

15min

Eric Simons is the founder and CEO of StackBlitz, the company behind Bolt—the #1 web-based AI coding agent and one of the fastest-growing products in history. After nearly shutting down, StackBlitz launched Bolt on Twitter and exploded from zero to $40 million ARR and 1 million monthly active users in about five months.

What you’ll learn:

1. How Bolt reached nearly $40M ARR and 3 million registered users in just five months with a team of only 15 to 20 people

2. How Bolt leverages WebContainer technology—a browser-based operating system developed over seven years—to create a dramatically faster, more reliable AI coding experience than competitors

3. Why Anthropic’s 3.5 Sonnet model was the critical breakthrough that made AI-generated code production-ready and unlocked the entire text-to-app market

4. Why PMs may be better positioned than engineers in the AI era

5. How AI will dramatically reshape company org charts

6. Eric’s wild founder story (including squatting at AOL’s HQ) and how scrappiness fueled his innovation

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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-bolt-eric-simons

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Where to find Eric Simons:

• X: https://x.com/ericsimons40

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-simons-a464a664/

• Email: Eric@stackblitz.com

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

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

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Introduction to Eric Simons and StackBlitz

(04:46) Unprecedented growth and user adoption

(10:40) Demo: Building a Spotify clone with Bolt

(15:28) Expanding to native mobile apps with Expo

(19:09) The journey and technology behind WebContainer

(25:03) Lessons learned and future outlook

(29:15) Post-launch analysis

(34:15) Growing fast with a small team

(41:00) Prioritization at Bolt

(45:51) Tooling and PRD's

(48:42) Integration and use cases of Bolt

(52:24) Limitations of Bolt

(54:24) The role of PMs and developers in the AI era

(59:56) Skills for the future

(01:14:18) Upcoming features of Bolt

(01:20:17) How to get the most out of Bolt

(01:23:00) Eric’s journey and final thoughts

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Referenced:

• Bolt: https://bolt.new/

• Cursor: https://www.cursor.com/

• Wix: https://www.wix.com/

• Squarespace: https://www.squarespace.com/

• Dylan Field on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanfield/

• Evan Wallace’s website: https://madebyevan.com/

• WebGL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebGL

• WebAssembly: https://webassembly.org/

• CloudNine: https://cloudnine.com/

• Canva: https://www.canva.com/

• StackBlitz: https://stackblitz.com/

• Lessons from 1,000+ YC startups: Resilience, tar pit ideas, pivoting, more | Dalton Caldwell (Y Combinator, Managing Director): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/lessons-from-1000-yc-startups

• Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/

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

• Dario Amodei on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dario-amodei-3934934/

• Linear: https://linear.app/

• Notion: https://www.notion.com/

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

• Atlassian: https://www.atlassian.com/

• Photoshop: https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/

• Figma: https://www.figma.com/

• Greenfield projects: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenfield_project

• Gartner: https://www.gartner.com/

• OpenAI researcher on why soft skills are the future of work | Karina Nguyen (Research at OpenAI, ex-Anthropic): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/why-soft-skills-are-the-future-of-work-karina-nguyen

• Albert Pai on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertpai/

• Bolt’s post on X about “Bolt Builders”: https://x.com/boltdotnew/status/1887546089294995943

• Sonnet: https://www.anthropic.com/claude/sonnet

• ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/

• Breaking the Rules: The Young Entrepreneur Who Squatted at AOL: https://www.inc.com/john-mcdermott/eric-simons-interview-young-entrepreneur-squatted-at-aol.html

• Imagine K12: http://www.imaginek12.com/

• Geoff Ralston on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffralston/

• AOL: https://www.aol.com/

• Bolt on X: https://x.com/boltdotnew

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

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