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Amjad Masad: How I Founded Replit; Zuck's Famous Saying; Will TikTok be banned? | E987

Amjad Masad is the Founder and CEO @ Replit, whose mission is to bring the next billion software creators online. With Replit, Amjad has raised over $100M from the likes of Peter Thiel, a16z, Coatue and Addition, to name a few. Before founding Replit, Amjad was a tech lead on the JavaScript infrastructure team at Facebook. Before Facebook, Amjad was #1 employee at Codecademy. ------------------------------------- Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:51 Who is Amjad Masad? 7:57 Great Startups are Conspiracies to Change the World 11:53 Planners vs Doers 13:54 Why Gen-Z Doesn’t Work Hard 17:07 Zuck’s Famous Saying 17:57 Why Replit Seeks Pain 20:26 Employees Who Don’t Scale with Their Role 23:10 Amjad’s Biggest Hiring Mistake 26:37 The History of Software Development 31:20 40%-80% of Code is Written by AI Today 37:53 Will AI drive down the wages of developers? 40:45 Why Income Inequality is Going to Get Much Worse 43:03 ChatGPT Will Shrink the Knowledge Gap 44:20 Why Zuck is Switching his Focus from Metaverse to AI 45:29 Should the US ban TikTok? 51:14 Quick-Fire Round --------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Amjad Masad We Discuss: 1.) From Troublemaker Child in Iran to Silicon Valley Founder: How did Amjad make his way into the world of tech and Silicon Valley having grown up as a misbehaving child in Iran? In what ways did Amjad show early signs of exceptionalism? Why does he always look for this in people he is hiring for Replit? What does Amjad know now that he wishes he had known when he started Replit? 2.) The Future: A New World with AI at the Centre: Why does Amjad believe we will see thousands of billionaires created from the innovation in AI? Why does Amjad believe AI will lead to 100 more Elon Musks? If Amjad were CEO of Facebook, what would he do? Why and how do they have to invest in AI? Will TikTok be banned in the US? How will this be resolved? Why does Amjad believe that 300 people control the future of AI? Is that not concerning? 3.) The Future of Society, Employment and Wages: Why does Amjad believe in 10 years, 1 engineer will be able to do what 100 do today? What will happen to the real wages of engineers? How does Amjad see the inclusion of universal basic income in the future? Is Amjad concerned about societal and civil unrest with wealth disparity widening further? 4.) Building the Replit Army: Why does Amjad believe that so many in tech have gotten too soft in the last few years? Why does Amjad release a “Why You Should Not Join Replit” page and share it with all candidates? How can a founder know if they have good company values or not? Why does Amjad feel we need a spiritual reform in company building? Why are startups and religion the same? ------------------------------------------------------ Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Amjad Masad on Twitter: https://twitter.com/amasad Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vc_reels Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com ———————————— #AmjadMasad #Replit #HarryStebbings

Amjad MasadguestHarry Stebbingshost
Mar 10, 202358mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Amjad Masad on misfits, AI’s future, and rejecting mediocrity worldwide

  1. Replit founder Amjad Masad discusses his unconventional upbringing in Jordan, early entrepreneurial hustles, and deep aversion to mediocrity as core drivers of his life and company-building philosophy.
  2. He outlines how he hires for early signs of exceptionalism, embraces misfits, and uses provocative values like “seek pain” and “do stuff” to filter for intensely entrepreneurial, hard‑working people.
  3. Masad then maps the evolution of software development to today’s AI‑assisted coding, predicting a new productivity S‑curve where a single great engineer can be as productive as 100, and smaller teams create billion‑dollar companies.
  4. He also explores societal implications—wealth inequality, cultural decadence, TikTok and China, Bitcoin as a reserve currency—and his vision for Replit as a full‑stack platform enabling anyone, anywhere, to go from first line of code to first dollar earned.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Look for early signs of exceptionalism when hiring or backing founders.

Masad believes truly exceptional people almost always show it early—through hustling, athletics, or obsessive pursuits—and that those with straight, “normal” paths rarely later do something extraordinary.

Use ‘non-values’ and provocative values to aggressively self-select your team.

Replit publishes why you *shouldn’t* work there and uses values like “seek pain” so reasonable people can disagree; this filters out comfort‑seekers and attracts those aligned with discomfort, speed, and hard problems.

Embrace pain quickly instead of deferring it in startups.

Masad argues most company problems are deferred pain—avoiding tough customer feedback, hard product truths, or underperforming people—and delaying only turns small pain into “a mountain of pain” later.

Hire for entrepreneurial bias to action; you can’t process your way into hustle.

For non-technical roles especially, Masad says the best job description is simply “do stuff”; processes can’t turn low-drive people into high-output operators, so selection matters far more than structure.

AI will massively amplify top engineers and shrink required team sizes.

With tools like Copilot and Replit Ghostwriter already writing 30–80% of code, Masad expects a decade where one great engineer can be 100x productive, shifting engineers from low-level toil to business logic and customer focus.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

The idea of being normal—or a normie—is very scary to me.

— Amjad Masad

Most problems at companies are just delusions from not wanting to face pain.

— Amjad Masad

The best job description is: do stuff.

— Amjad Masad

One good engineer in 10 years will be as productive as 100 engineers today.

— Amjad Masad

Software is a superpower, and this superpower is stuck in an ivory tower of Silicon Valley elite. We’re trying to free it.

— Amjad Masad

Amjad Masad’s early life in Jordan, first hustles, and sense of destinyHiring philosophy: early signs of exceptionalism, misfits, and non-valuesCompany culture and values: “seek pain,” “do stuff,” and anti-mediocrityHistory and future of software development, from machine code to AIAI-assisted programming, productivity gains, and impact on developer labor marketsSocietal impacts: wealth inequality, knowledge equality, and cultural decadenceGeopolitics and tech: TikTok, China, US values, and potential bansLong-term bets: Bitcoin as reserve currency and Replit’s global opportunity mission

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