No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups

Bolt’s Eric Simons on Enabling Everyone to Generate Websites with AI

Dec 5, 2024

Eric Simons, co-founder and CEO of StackBlitz, shares the journey behind the explosive success of Bolt.new, an AI tool for creating full-stack web applications directly in browsers. He discusses how Bolt empowers non-technical users and fosters a vibrant community around web development. Eric also highlights the evolution of no-code tools and their impact on developers. Amid the tech talk, he provides amusing anecdotes from his unconventional path in Silicon Valley and balances his entrepreneurial life with personal challenges, including training for an Ironman.

38:17

Episode guests

Eric Simons

AI Summary

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Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Bolt democratizes web development by enabling non-technical users to create complex, production-ready applications through simple prompts.

The platform's success is driven by community engagement and transparency, fostering innovation and reducing user churn among its diverse user base.

Deep dives

Rapid Growth of Bolt

Bolt, an AI tool for building full-stack web applications directly in the browser, has experienced extraordinary growth, reaching 20 million in ARR soon after its launch. Unlike traditional site builders, Bolt enables users, regardless of their technical background, to create production-ready applications by simply inputting prompts. The platform aims to vastly increase the number of users from 200,000 to 100 million by making development more accessible for everyone. This tool is designed to generate not just static sites but real software solutions that meet complex requirements.

Intro

2min

Empowering Developers with Bolt and AI Tools

27min

Unconventional Beginnings in Silicon Valley

3min

Navigating Challenges: Personal and Professional Growth Through Adversity

4min

The Future of AI in Software Development: Advancements in Code Generation

3min

In this episode of No Priors, Sarah talks with Eric Simons, co-founder and CEO of StackBlitz. The company has experienced explosive growth since the launch 2 months ago of Bolt.new, an AI application that lets users prompt, run, edit, and deploy full-stack applications directly in the browser. Eric talks about the years-long journey that led to overnight success, why so many non-technical users are forming a community around Bolt, and the democratization of coding.

Show Notes:

0:00 Introduction

0:36 Bolt.new

2:04 How Bolt stands out from other coding assistants

3:28 Building beyond ChatGPT wrappers

6:13 Driving growth through community

9:42 Evals

13:29 Eric’s favorite use cases and startups leveraging Bolt

17:10 Why engineers are embracing no- code tools

24:32 The years long journey of StackBlitz

31:50 Balancing an Ironman, a newborn, and a product launch

35:18 Predictions for developers and code generation tools

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