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After nine years of grinding, Replit found its market. Can it keep it?

(techcrunch.com)
56 points toomanyrichies | 2 comments | 05 Oct 25 23:02 UTC | HN request time: 0.546s | source
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jackblemming ◴[10 Oct 25 08:38 UTC] No.45536583[source]▶
Sounds like these guys kind of flailed around for almost a decade and then jumped on the AI bandwagon. Nothing wrong with that, I’m just surprised someone decided to bankroll them for so long. Also not sure how successful they’ll be long term, since they’re presumably a wrapper around one of the big three in a highly competitive space.
replies(1): >>45536848 #
1. mcherm ◴[10 Oct 25 09:24 UTC] No.45536848[source]▶
> I’m just surprised someone decided to bankroll them for so long.

When you are PROFITABLE (but not as profitable as your investors would like) you can run FOREVER without anyone "bankrolling" you. It's a foreign concept in the AI world (and sometimes it feels like it's foreign to the tech startup world) but quite effective.

replies(1): >>45536997 #
2. maxbond ◴[10 Oct 25 09:47 UTC] No.45536997[source]▶
Even if you are profitable your investors could pressure you to exit to some other company so that they can recoup their investment. But I doubt they were profitable. Going by the article they had about 100 employees and about $2M in revenue before they downsized. Assuming a median salary of $100k that would put their payroll alone at $10M. But the napkin math is kinda beside the point because they did keep raising money [1].

[1] https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/113831-02