🎯 How to build the future like Replit

Wedge, then scale

February 13, 2024

Read time: 3 minutes 23 seconds

At Strategy Breakdowns, we typically focus on the micro - the tactics, the user journeys, the viral loops.

The practical learnings you can pick up, adapt, and implement in your own business.

Occasionally, we go macro.

The hope is that with the right framing, you can pick up, adapt, and implement some aspect of even the broadest of strategic ambitions.

For today’s edition, we’re going macro.

Few founders outwardly commit to a strategy of building “the most valuable company in the world”. Replit’s founder Amjad Masad is one of them.

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How to build the future like Replit

Chess Move

The what: A TLDR explanation of the strategy

Replit is a reaction to the modern software development condition:

→ “Developers spend their time waiting for builds, runnings tests, fighting with linters, and configuring frameworks”

→ “The more sophisticated our tools are, the harder it is to set up… Programming is getting harder to learn”

→ “It’s creating an unbalanced world where there are programmers, and then there are those who are programmed”

To create a future where “anyone anywhere can participate in the digital economy and build and leverage software to better themselves and their communities”, they are creating the Figma for coding.

So simple to get started, you feel like you already know how to use it.

Internet-native, portable, and scalable.

Complete with modern conveniences like real-time multiplayer, AI tools, and a best-in-class mobile app.

Today, Replit offers the most thoughtful and complete ‘starter pack’ for beginner programmers.

Tomorrow, they hope to retain those beginner programmers as they mature, and be the first open computing platform to reach 1 billion users creating and monetising software.

💡

Strategy Playbook: Win the long-tail, and scale up with them.

Breakdown

The how: The strategic playbook boiled down to 3x key takeaways

1.  Create the de facto ‘entry point’

The typical ‘learn to code’ journey starts something like this:

Get inspired by an idea you’ve dreamt up

Watch a few tutorials

Build the confidence to start coding

Reach inevitable decision point to (1) mock up your creation in a simple browser-based learning environment like CodePen, or (2) try to configure a fit-for-purpose local development environment.

If you chose (1), you’ll quickly create something tangible, before soon realising your environment can’t support basic necessities like version control, new libraries, file structures, or databases that transform your ‘idea’ into a ‘product’.

If you chose (2), you’ll be stuck for hours on gnarly beginner problems like configuring libraries, self-hosting, and environment setup, ballooning the time investment to ‘publish’ your creation.

Replit creates option (3):

No downloads. No config. No setup. Start coding instantly, right from your browser.

Every common library comes pre-installed.

All features you need to save and share your work available out-of-the-box.

Plus, all the nudges, pathways, extensions, and community support needed to “blur the distinction between learning and building”.

Importantly, Replit recognises that catering to the requirements of a specific persona has as much to do with adding features they need as it does removing features they don’t need.

Replit abstracts away complexities like package management, hosting, CICD, credentials, API keys, unit testing, and user authentication so users can focus on creating.

The result? Replit becomes the easiest way to “go from idea to software, fast”.

2. Be the vehicle for ‘low-value’ segments to become ‘high-value’

Replit wants to be the “first place that anyone writes a line of code”.

A defensible strategy, but one that raises some valid challenges:

→ Firstly, what happens when your entry-level users outgrow the sophistication of your tool?

Replit’s Position: “We want the best of both worlds, an IDE that starts out looking like a playground but can grow with you as soon as you require the extra power.”

From ‘Repl.it: the IDE that Grows—from Playgrounds to Fullstack Apps’

Eventually, Replit aims to be a "low-floor and high-ceiling product” that meets functional needs for all stages of coding maturity.

→ Secondly, entry-level users are the typically least valuable segment of any market. How will you create value effectively?

Replit’s Position: Relentless focus on ‘playing the long-game’.

Yes, their user base skews young and international, with 50% under 18 years old.

But, with a product that scales and up-skills its loyal users, if they can successfully retain those users as they get older, they have the potential to become the platform of choice for writing code and generating wealth on the internet.

From ‘Operating Principles’

Replit’s ultimate bet: Go after the long-tail, empower them to create wealth, and find a way to capture a fraction of the value it’s users create.

3. Don’t just create tools. Create opportunities.

Replit’s vision promises more than coding tools - it promises wealth for it’s users.

However, if all devtools help people to code, and more people coding leads to more wealth, then couldn’t the same be said for all devtools?

Replit creates tangible opportunities for its users by architecting a microeconomy of incentives and monetisation features across its platform.

Bounties: A rich marketplace for developers to earn by completing coding projects for others.

Payments: Native integrations with payment processors like Stripe to help creators monetise their creations.

Grants: Funding for Replit-powered startups via ‘Replit Ventures’ with thousands of dollars in bitcoin, technical mentorship, free publicity, and service discounts.

Rewards: Prize pools for completing tasks.

Employment: Cleverly placed links to Replit job applications throughout the ecosystem, such as in blog posts explaining the technical details behind new product updates.

For Replit, the future relies on a roadmap that doesn’t just provide value, but enables value creation.

 

Rabbit Hole

The where: 3x high-signal resources to learn more

[3 minute read]

Founder @amasad’s viral tweetstorm on the future of software engineering.

With megatrends like AI programming, decentralisation, and decreasing computing costs at play, Amjad’s predicts “a 100x productivity boost is the lower bound.”

[9 minute read]

To build a generational company, Replit has to attract job applications from the right kinds of candidates.

Here’s a different take on the ‘company values’ artefact: A list of reasons, philosophies and traits that characterise the type of candidate who shouldn’t apply.

[38 minute read]

The 9,000+ word Not Boring thesis that fossilised Replit’s status in the Twitter-sphere.

Enjoy the intricate theorycrafting for how Replit is building the “Operating System for the 21st Century”.

That’s all for today’s issue folks

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