Replit’s CEO Says Vibe Coding Is Powering a New Wave of Solo Startups

Amjad Masad, Replit’s CEO, stated the period of solo software program creation has arrived, and all it takes is just a few hours and immediate.

“You possibly can simply have a immediate and have an app,” he stated on an episode of the “Massive Expertise Podcast” revealed Wednesday.

“I would say at the least set a day to offer it some good effort and attempt to get your first app. And when you do this, you simply get it,” he added.

Replit, which lets customers construct functions by way of AI-assisted prompts and code autocomplete instruments, has seen explosive development.

The corporate stated its annual recurring income soared from $10 million on the finish of 2024 to over $100 million by mid-2025, marking a tenfold improve in beneath six months

Masad referred to this shift as “vibe coding” — a time period used to explain constructing software program by writing pure language prompts that AI turns into practical code.

Whereas it lowers the barrier to entry, it nonetheless requires time and iteration, he stated.

“Individuals want to speculate effort. It is not magic,” he stated. “You continue to must study immediate engineering, iterate, and perceive that AI fashions have randomness — like temperature settings.”

Vibe coding is unlocking new alternatives for non-technical creators, Masad stated, citing customers starting from HR professionals to medical doctors and Uber drivers.

“Everybody on the planet has concepts,” he stated. “And other people construct a lot area data about no matter their discipline of labor, proper? However they by no means had been capable of make it into software program as a result of they did not have the ability, and possibly they did not have the capital.”

In a single case, Masad stated a British physician constructed a complete health-tracking app for beneath £100, or about $133, regardless of an company quoting it £100,000, or $133,000.

Masad believes this new wave of one-person startups may assist reverse declining entrepreneurship throughout the nation.

“For those who’re attempting to construct an organization that generates an incredible dwelling — the place even you get wealthy from it — I feel we’re virtually there,” he stated.

Solo entrepreneurs are turning vibe coding into actual earnings

The rise of instruments like Replit is giving solo creators unprecedented leverage, and it is already altering lives.

Take Rebecca Seashore, a former UX designer who doubled her earnings to as much as $20,000 a month promoting AI-generated digital merchandise.

“Earlier than I began vibe coding, it may’ve taken me weeks or months to create a single course or printable,” she beforehand instructed Enterprise Insider. “Now I can create a printable workbook in beneath 20 minutes.”

Therese Waechter, proprietor of the web sticker store Otto’s Grotto, stated vibe coding helped her enhance her Shopify storefront, add customized options, and double her income.

“I coded in a wholesale catalog and added customizations for listings with out developer assist,” she instructed Enterprise Insider. “I feel these options elevated belief in my model for presidency purchasers and retail shops, and boosted my conversion price for high-profit gadgets.”

Even complete learners are diving in. Enterprise Insider’s Alistair Barr constructed a working e-commerce website together with his daughter in six hours utilizing the AI software Bolt.

The pair used pure language prompts so as to add cost integrations and launch a reside retailer with out writing a single line of code themselves.

Nonetheless, not everybody sees vibe coding as a complete substitute for software program engineering.

Talking on the sidelines of VivaTech in Paris in June, GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke stated that whereas AI makes it simpler to launch startups, a “non-technical founder will discover it troublesome to construct a startup at scale with out builders.”

Bob McGrew, the previous analysis chief at OpenAI, echoed that time in June, saying prototypes made by way of vibe coding nonetheless must be “rewritten from scratch” by human engineers.