“I rick rolled Sam Altman and got funded” - Replit Founder

Key Takeaways

You're awesome. So, you have you're today in a position that I think a lot of people want to be in. You have you're doing the Silicon Valley dream. You had this idea. You go through YC. You've now raised hundreds of millions of dollars. You're valued at a, you know, billion dollar valuation. So, that's today. But then the cool thing about your story is that didn't seem likely, you know, 10 years ago. Is a very unlikely success story. And yeah, you went through YC, but you were rejected a bunch of times. Like, yeah, you're in Silicon Valley now, but you started off coding in an internet cafe in Jordan. That's what's interesting to me. And we asked you beforehand, we're like, "Hey, what killer stories could you come on the podcast and tell?" And you go, you wrote this, so I'm going to read a word for word, and then I want you to tell us the story. You go, >> "Rejected four times and rick rolling into YC, >> raising tons of money and meeting amazing billionaires." So, let's do the first part. Rejected four times and rick rolling into YC. Can you tell the story? >> Sam's like, "Yeah, you should do YC." actually the batch starts tomorrow. Why don't you fill an application? It's just a just a you know process uh you have to do and we can do a late interview tomorrow. And I'm like [ __ ] I want to fill the application again. Like you made me do it like four times. Like I don't want to do it again. And so you know I I kind of do a bare bones application about about reflid and then there's the video. I'm like yeah man I don't want to I don't want to do the video. So, so I I pasted a YouTube link and and we go the next day. Uh, hia and I, >> by the way, for people who don't know, the YC application is like one page. It's like six or seven questions, but then they say upload a video, two or three minutes, you talking about your startup. So, that's the video part. And then the interview is 10 minutes where there just rapid fire. So, you have like 10 minutes and it's like this make or break thing. It's less than a lunch, you know, like it's less than a job interview. It's more intense. So, you're waiting around for that. >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my view was they recruited us to YC. Like, why are you making us do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do dodo do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do this stuff, right? And and so >> yeah, I was going to ask that. Like they're ask they're acting like, you know, Paul Graham's like, you know, maybe I could pull some strings. It's [laughter] like >> I know a guy. >> Yeah. Like you're the guy, so I don't [clears throat] understand what they're uh [laughter] what they're bullshitting. I don't get it. >> Well, I I think they they wanted to to just like go through the process. It's like the process applies to everyone. And I I respect that. So, uh you know, the uh they call us to to the interview. Um and and I walk in and and there was uh Jared and Adora and and and all these amazing YC partners. And there was Michael. He was the CEO at the time. And I shake their hands and I shake Michael's hand and and I felt like his grip was was a little too hard. I was like, "Okay, that's fine." And then I I go sit down on the chair and and the moment I sit down, Michael looks at me. Why did you recall us? Oh my god. And and I'm like, you know, we we applied several times and and I thought it'd be fun to do and and you know, I thought this this interview was just uh we're just, you know, formality and and and he's like, "That's not how you get into YC." And he was he was very very angry. Well, turns out when we're sitting outside, they were getting recrolled inside, right? So, so imagine their mindset looking at the application and and and getting the the the recrol song and uh and then they give us a very tough interview. >> In that moment, did you It's like and that's when I realized I [ __ ] up like did you realize like >> Yes. >> how I'm coming across like what was your mindset there? Like they must [clears throat] think >> I was nervous. I was very nervous and I was regretful immediately. Uh >> because you probably it's like oh here's this >> entitled just another just another tech entitled guy when they don't know you're like >> immigrant from Jordan who's like scraped his way here right they don't reality and how you were coming across weren't connected in that moment. No, they they weren't at all. And uh and so uh and so I you know, we go outside and and I tell her, "Okay, this is done. Let's let's call an Uber and get back to work. Like we don't have we don't need to get into YC." So I call an Uber and uh just before I arrive, I receive a call and and I I take the call and it's like, "Hey, it's Adora. Uh you got in come back. Uh the the kickoff is about to start." And I was like, "What? Are you sure?" She's like, "Yeah, come back, sign sign the paperwork and get started." So, I was stunned the whole day. Like, it was, you know, we start we go to the dinner and I'm like, you know, you know, phased out and and and all, but but like it was really exciting. And, you know, people who who who's who's never been to the YC office and in Mountain View, it's all orange, like bright orange and and the lights and everything, it feels like a cultlike environment and like >> isn't it like I think I've seen the inside. Isn't it like a like a Don't they they have like a steeple or isn't like one of the rooms it like is a a triangle like a church almost? >> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And Sam gets up and tells us what what the experience is going to be. It's like this is the hardest time you're going to work. You know, you better tell your friends and family that you're going to go away for 3 months. You can't help them move or or all of that. You just got to be focused on on work. So Hay and I like took it very seriously. Okay. I was like okay this these three months are are are very important for for the success of the company and we transformed the product in these three months. It went from a simple sort of editor output to a place where you can host applications and build real things and all in 3 months and we're working you know 12hour 13-hour days and um and and it was it was only uh three of us at the time. Um, our first employee actually was um was sort of a runaway kid. Uh, he grew up in California uh little down south and uh and he didn't want to go to school and so he leaves his uh his home. He goes to Hack Reactor and uh and he becomes he becomes a programmer and he was 18. He was looking for a job. I knew the guys at Hacker Reactor. They use Replet and I'm like send me your best programmer and he's like look this kid is a little awkward but he's the best. until he comes in and he nails our interview. >> Music to my ears. >> Yeah. And basically, I like him because, you know, it mirrors kind of my life story a little bit. >> Where is this guy now? >> But we got him we got him some liquidity after six years of working. Uh I felt that's the right thing to do and because he was kind of burnt out and didn't want to continue. So I I called my I called my brother in Jordan. I'm like, "Look, you gota you got to come out here. We're in YC. You need to" and he's a programmer. I taught him programming when he was a kid and I was like you got to you got to come come help us and he's still with us today and I called my friend from code academy Moody he's still with us today as well and like you you got to help us like uh like you know you could do it remotely and so we assembled like a team of five people essentially and so we we go really hard and we were like one of the hottest uh companies in YC at the time >> and uh can you give some sense of the scale of it now like you know um I invested in it pro uh a year ago or so two years ago or something like that. I don't know when. Um but the numbers were off. You had user growth. First your graph looked like a hockey stick because >> you zoom out and you you you [clears throat] it ignores all of the little like years where nothing was really going on. But you have this crazy growth, but the crazy thing about it is that your growth was developers. So it's like, you know, one developer user is worth I don't know 10 20 times just like a normal internet user. But you had this crazy hockey stick growth of developers. Can you talk about Can you just say a couple of like permission to brag, can you say a couple of bragworthy stats that would impress us? >> Yeah. So, so Replo was very easy to get started with and so people would start uh start in co using it in college or or high school and continue using it for many years. And so it was sticky for especially junior developers when they're starting out. Um and uh and it was it was spreading on its own like word of mouth. uh you know there was a viral component to it people can share a URL and then suddenly you're in the same environment as them right like and then we had this like multiplier coding experience and so people were collaborating and um and also uh co was really great for us because we were I think the only collaborative editor experience on the web at the time and so a lot of people were remote and and needed something to work with with each other and so uh replo was adopted at the time And so the the growth uh was was off the chart and the servers were going down and the marginal use of any web app is sort of like zero zero cost but for us it was uh you know we we tried to optimize it a lot but it was still on the order of like $1 to5 like a month and you know the growth was off the charts but I I you know I have to admit it was hard to monetize at the time because uh developers are actually not used to pay for things. Now they kind of are paying for things because of AI but at the time they they weren't uh they weren't paying and then um you know as as we added limits and things like that that they thought like they they can like move on and set up their own developer environment and so it took a lot of you know creative thinking to figure out how to charge for people and ultimately AI was the thing that that people are paying for and the reason is like the productivity benefit of AI is like uh it's like obvious um and people is like okay this saves me time and makes me a better developer and so people are paying for it right now. Well, can you give any indication on how many users or how many um how much revenue the business does? >> You know, signups we we have like more than 30 million I think 35 million uh users right now. In terms of active users, it kind of fluctuates, but you know, three uh you know 2 to 3 million a month, probably 100,000 uh apps hosted hosted on Replet. Um because you can build an app and and and deploy it all in in one environment. Um I in terms of revenue I can't share right now but like uh especially this year it's been like exponential growth.