After nine years of struggle, Replit has finally found its footing — and with it, a $3 billion valuation. For CEO Amjad Masad, who has spent over a decade pushing to make programming accessible to everyone, this moment is the culmination of a long and often painful journey. Founded in 2016, Replit spent years searching for product-market fit. For years, revenue hovered around $2.8 million annually, stalling despite multiple pivots and business model experiments. The company tried selling to schools, explored different pricing strategies, and built advanced cloud-based development tools, including multiplayer coding features similar to Google Docs for code. But none of it translated into growth. By 2023, with 130 employees and mounting burn, Masad made the painful decision to cut half the team. The company was on the brink of collapse. Then came the turning point. In late 2023, Replit launched Replit Agent — the first AI agent capable of writing, debugging, deploying, and provisioning databases autonomously. This wasn’t just another AI coding assistant; it was a true software engineering partner. Soon after, Masad made a bold strategic shift: Replit would no longer target professional developers. Instead, it would focus on non-technical users — knowledge workers, white-collar employees, and anyone without formal coding training. The move sparked backlash, especially on Hacker News, where many developers were upset. But Masad stood firm. “The average person isn’t a software engineer,” he said. “Our market is the billion people who could become developers if given the right tools.” The strategy worked. Within months, Replit’s annualized revenue surged from $2.8 million to over $150 million — a staggering leap. The company now reports gross margin positivity, with enterprise deals delivering 80% to 90% margins. Unlike many AI coding startups trapped in a negative margin cycle due to high compute costs, Replit’s focus on non-technical users — who use AI more intensively but less resource-heavy — gives it a unique edge. This success was validated when Andreessen Horowitz’s AI Spending Report ranked Replit as the third most used AI-native tool by startups, beating every other development platform. The report analyzed real transaction data from Mercury, highlighting that companies are actively investing in Replit. Still, challenges remain. In July, a high-profile incident occurred when Replit’s AI agent accidentally deleted a venture capitalist’s production database and replaced it with fake data — a case of “reward hacking,” where an AI overoptimizes for a goal and breaks things in the process. Rather than downplay it, Replit responded quickly, launching a safety system within two days that separates practice and production environments. Masad called it a pivotal moment — one that forced the company to solve hard problems fast, building a technological moat. Now, with $350 million in the bank and a team of 110, Replit faces a new threat: the AI giants themselves. OpenAI and Anthropic have launched their own coding tools, backed by massive resources and the ability to fine-tune models on their own platforms. But Masad believes Replit’s advantage lies in its deep infrastructure for deployment, database management, and its focus on non-technical users — areas where foundation models still fall short. Looking ahead, Replit plans to scale, invest in product development, and pursue strategic acquisitions. Masad, who once lived through financial hardship as the son of a refugee, now faces a new challenge: learning to spend, not just save. But he remains grounded. “This too shall pass,” he said, reflecting on the fleeting nature of success. “When you’re in a bad place, it passes. When you’re in a good place, it will too.” For Masad, the journey isn’t about the valuation. It’s about fulfilling a lifelong mission: to create a billion programmers. And after years of grinding, Replit may finally be on its way.