Replit is making waves in the online startup world, with the buzzword called “vibe coding,” which essentially means building an app or a website without having to actually code. The developer uses AI applications like Chat GPT to generate the program or simply writes a prompt on Replit about what they want. 

Replit, founded by ex-Facebook Amjad Masad, simplifies web development by using generative AI. You simply type in your prompt that this is the kind of website or application you want to build, and boom…the platform renders a code and gives you a visual preview, which you can then tweak and eventually publish. 

However, the platform itself is not the only astonishing thing about it, the founding story is also a pretty interesting case study for entrepreneurs. Did you know Amjad was building Replit for over ten years as a side hustle while working at Facebook? 

He even pitched it to Facebook and wrote a mail to Mark Zuckerberg but was “ignored.” Amjad got rejected by Y-Combinator multiple times and yet eventually raised $97M in Series-B investment. 

Replit is here to disrupt not just web development but the way we build businesses. So let’s dive into the story and the mind of Amjad Masad and understand where this story is coming from and where it’s going. 

The Problem No One Saw (Except Amjad)

Masad's journey didn't begin in a Silicon Valley boardroom but in a cramped internet café in Jordan, where he hacked his way into coding before eventually “Rickrolling” his way into Y Combinator.

As a kid growing up in Jordan, Masad didn't have a personal computer at home. Every time he wanted to code, he had to set up everything from scratch at an internet café—installing compilers, configuring environments, and troubleshooting problems before he could even start writing code.

While most programmers in the West faced minor setup annoyances, Masad dealt with them every single day. And in true startup fashion, he turned his frustration into an opportunity:

“Why can’t I just type code into a browser and run it instantly?”

At the time, everything else was moving to the cloud: email, documents, music. But coding? Still stuck in the Stone Age of local setups.

Masad started tinkering with the idea of running code directly in the browser. The challenge? Browsers weren’t built to execute multiple programming languages. But instead of giving up, he spent years hacking his way through the problem, eventually creating a fully online coding environment that eliminated setup headaches.

This early version of Replit started as a side project, but Masad knew it had the potential to change how people learned to code.

Investing Facebook Stock Into The Company

Amjad has an impressive resume, no doubt! Before starting at Facebook in 2013, he had worked as a Software Engineer at Yahoo and a Founding Engineer at Code Academy. 2013 in Facebook can still be considered early days. 

At the right time, Mossad liquidated his stocks/ESOPs at Facebook and invested half of them in Bitcoin and half in Replit. Both risky - yet high-return investments if you ask us! And this was 2013. The capital was roughly $70,000. 

A Viral Moment: Hacking the Browser

One of the biggest challenges Replit faced was making different programming languages run inside a browser - something no one had successfully done before. Instead of waiting for someone else to solve the problem, Masad and his small team did it themselves.

They wrote interpreters and compilers that could execute Python, Ruby, and other languages directly in the browser. When they open-sourced this breakthrough in 2011, it went viral on Hacker News, gaining massive traction among developers.

This wasn’t some minor tweak. It was a fundamental shift in how programming environments worked.

“I was like oh my God! This is this is like an amazing rush and I still feel that Rush” - Amjad Masad, My First Billion

10 Years Overnight Success: A Non-Linear Journey

For years, Replit was just a side project. Amjad Masad spent countless nights and weekends hacking away, with no clear roadmap to success. It wasn’t until 2011 when his breakthrough (running multiple programming languages in the browser) went viral on Hacker News, that he saw real rewards.

“That was the first time I felt a little bit of fame, a little bit of return on investment.”

Suddenly, big names in the industry started paying attention. Brendan Eich, the inventor of JavaScript and then-CTO of Mozilla, tweeted about it. Developers discussed it at conferences. Articles were written.

For a young programmer from Jordan, this wasn’t just recognition, but a validation. It proved that his work mattered on a global scale.

And that recognition had real consequences.

The Visa That Changed Everything

One unexpected perk? The buzz around his open-source project helped Masad secure an O-1 visa - the type reserved for individuals with “extraordinary ability.”

With that, the doors to Silicon Valley opened. He landed a job at Codecademy, where they were already using Replit’s open-source tools.

At the same time, there was a massive boom in online education—with platforms like Udacity and Coursera using Replit’s technology to build interactive coding courses.

Masad wasn’t making life-changing money yet, but his work was slowly but surely shaping his future.

From Side Project to Full-Time Passion! Looking back, Masad realized he had been working on this his entire adult life.

“I’m 36 now, and I started this when I was 21. That’s my whole life.”

But unlike many startup stories, this wasn’t 11 years of grinding in the dark with nothing to show for it. Replit was incrementally improving his life and bringing recognition, job offers, and new opportunities.

Struggles with Raising Money & Profitability

Before Replit became a billion-dollar company, investors weren’t interested.

“We’d get meetings with VCs, and some of them would literally fall asleep.”

Amjad Masad remembers the frustration—pitching his startup to people who barely paid attention. One venture capitalist even dozed off mid-pitch. Others yawned, checked their phones, or just dismissed the idea altogether.

The problem? Masad and his wife didn’t fit the mold.

• They weren’t Stanford dropouts.
• They weren’t working on the latest trendy startup category.
• They were a married couple, which VCs saw as a risk.

Raising the First Round

Masad kept applying to Y Combinator (YC), refining his pitch, and growing Replit’s revenue. Eventually, educators and developers started paying for it. By the time they made $10K/month, the company was profitable, which was enough to survive.

Then, Roy Bahat of Bloomberg Beta saw the potential. Unlike the others, he was direct and transparent. He invested $500K at a $6M valuation, giving Replit its first big break.

4x Rejection to Making It In YC

By 2016, Replit had thousands of users and was growing fast. Masad, then an engineer at Facebook, decided to turn it into a full-fledged company. The logical next step? Y Combinator (YC), the famous startup accelerator.

But YC wasn’t convinced. 

Masad applied FOUR times and got rejected each time!

Undeterred, he tried one last time—but this time, he got creative.

Instead of a normal application video, he Rickrolled YC in his pitch—embedding Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up inside his demo.

It worked. YC finally said yes.

The product itself was still simple. Just an online code editor with a console, but it solved a real problem. Developers could now write and run code instantly, without worrying about installing compilers or setting up their environment.

Replit wasn’t just making coding easier. It was making it accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world.

By 2017, Masad’s blog posts were gaining traction on Hacker News. That’s where Paul Graham (YC’s co-founder) noticed them.

One morning, Masad woke up to a DM from Sam Altman:

“Hey, I run YC, and we’re interested in what you’re doing.”

That led to an email exchange with Paul Graham himself, who had once tried to build something similar to Replit. After weeks of back-and-forth discussions, YC finally invited them in.

The lesson? Even if everyone rejects you at first, the right people will eventually notice, if you keep proving your worth.

The Evolution of Replit and Multiple Pivots

Before Replit became a full-fledged development platform, it started as JSRepl, an open-source tool created by Amjad Masad in 2011. It allowed users to run code in a browser, laying the groundwork for what would become Replit. Haya Odeh joined later, designing the logo and website, and helping shape the project’s identity.

Masad and Odeh aimed to create a real coding environment and not just an emulated one, starting with educators before expanding to professional developers.

Between 2022 and 2024, Replit launched Teams for Education, a free tool supporting computer science educators. However, in November 2023, Masad announced that maintaining it wasn’t sustainable, leading to its discontinuation by August 2024.

Most notably, on February 25, 2025, Replit released Agent v2, an advanced AI tool designed to build end-to-end software using natural language, marking a major leap forward in automation.

What is Replit today?

Today, Replit is a subscription-based Generative AI or an AI Agent tool that uses prompts to create applications and websites. 

Can Replit Make You a Millionaire?

Entrepreneurs are using Replit and other AI Agents for various things but it’s also facing criticism. Replit is magical, but it’s not perfect yet! What’s interesting is where it’s going. Replit is great for creating less dynamic applications but for more complicated apps, it still has work to do. 

However, there are multiple people using the platform creatively to make money. For example, the following YouTuber has some advice for you.

You can use Replit in the following ways to make more money:

• Build a Demo Framework for your Application 
• Create a Working MVP for your Business for Way Less Money and Effort 
• Create applications for clients
• Developers can use it to get an initial code template and then refine it further to tweak and develop an app

The Age of AI Agents & One-Man Business Potential

AI agents are changing the way software is built, making it easier for non-developers to create functional applications. Traditionally, launching an app required coding skills or hiring developers, but AI agents like those in Replit now handle much of the work. 

Users simply describe what they want, and the system writes code, integrates services like Twilio, and refines the output based on feedback, all in real-time.

This shift is eliminating technical barriers, allowing entrepreneurs and creatives to bring their ideas to life instantly. One example is Magic School, an AI-powered education platform built on Replit. 

A former teacher with little coding experience used AI to develop tools that automate lesson planning, grading, and quiz creation. In just over a year, the platform scaled to millions of educators and raised $20 million.

Beyond education, AI agents are being used in sales automation, like 11x, which replaces traditional sales development representatives (SDRs) with AI-powered outreach. These companies are growing at unprecedented rates, some hitting $10 million in revenue within months: a speed unheard of in traditional startups.

The long-term potential of AI agents is creating one-person companies that can scale like never before. With monetization tools like Stripe integration, AI-driven startups can generate revenue from day one. 

While challenges remain, such as improving reliability and handling edge cases, AI agents are rapidly evolving. In a few years, building and launching a startup may be as simple as asking an AI to do it.

Final Thoughts

Artificial Intelligence is undoubtedly changing the way we do business and interact with each other. However, things that remain constant in every age are the qualities of resilience, adaptability, and overall emotional intelligence. 

With AI, the possibility of creation is endless, but what we learn from this story is that technology alone isn’t enough, but human creativity, problem-solving, and vision still play a crucial role.

Masad didn’t just build a coding platform but anticipated a future where anyone, regardless of skill level, could create software. He worked on it for more than a decade while still pursuing a full-time job which he didn’t quit until 2016. 

Replit’s 4x rejection at Y-Combinator and its constantly evolving nature simply display Amjad’s perseverance and trust in the journey. 

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