After nine years of grinding, Replit found its market. Can it keep it? • Hacker News Board

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

#131

Post by Retric » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 2:45 PM UTC

forgingahead wrote: post #92

tczMUFlmoNk wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, so, connecting these dots: - reducing headcount by 50% down to ~70 people = firing 70 people - at a generous estimate of total burdened cost of $1M/person/year, that's $70M/year - which accounts for a full 5 years of that war chest - and, moreover, "at its lowest point" suggests that perhaps Replit has expanded headcount again since; the article mentions that it has done some acqui-hires. Levels.fyi shows Replit…

Hilariously naive comment - "if you have money you should spend it on salaries". This is not a charity, it's a transaction, the salary is paid in exchange for revenue generating activities or supporting activities in a viable business. If the business is only doing 2.7mill in ARR, then it's entirely valid for the whole lot to get laid off.

It’s not about being a charity, the entire point of startups is to trade capital for time to market. If the CEO doesn’t know what to do with 130 people they don’t know what to do with 70.

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

#132

Post by Retric » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 2:48 PM UTC

victorbojica wrote: post #130

abuani wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds a lot like the CEO is throwing 50% of the company under the bus for his own failures to you know, make the business viable.

And would it be better that the whole 100% go under the bus for his own failures?

It’s better for startup investors if it goes big or fails sooner. That’s the entire purpose of investing 100’s of millions into these companies.

If the CEO has no idea how to do that they should shut down the company or stand aside and find a better CEO, not try and milk as much money from they can by keeping the company shambling along as long as possible.

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

#133

Post by enraged_camel » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 2:52 PM UTC

apwell23 wrote: post #125

markdown wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has been my experience also. You gotta give it detailed instructions for everything at the start. You can't just build as you go, because every time it adds something it breaks something else.

> because every time it adds something it breaks something else. standard ai workflow

Easily prevented with good test coverage IME. Not sure how that works in Replit though.

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

#134

Post by JDazzle » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 3:41 PM UTC

It's strange that their buzzwords are "to democratize programming"... isn't that already done very well with all the online free tools, documentation, tutorials, learning paths, etc?

Both AI and traditional programming paths share the same initial huge obstacle which is full access to a computer and the internet?

I'm not sure how AI is democratizing programming

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

#135

Post by Mario970 » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 4:26 PM UTC

JDazzle wrote: post #134

It's strange that their buzzwords are "to democratize programming"... isn't that already done very well with all the online free tools, documentation, tutorials, learning paths, etc? Both AI and traditional programming paths share the same initial huge obstacle which is full access to a computer and the internet? I'm not sure how AI is democratizing programming

You need to read between the lines: in boardroom speak, to "democratize" something usually means to dilute its rarity, usually to eliminate some party's bargaining power.

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

#136

Post by abuani » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 4:46 PM UTC

victorbojica wrote: post #130

abuani wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds a lot like the CEO is throwing 50% of the company under the bus for his own failures to you know, make the business viable.

And would it be better that the whole 100% go under the bus for his own failures?

Did I suggest that? I'm pointing out the blaring hypocrisy of a company sitting on $350M in cash that opted to double the size of their company without having a clear strategy to become profitable. Then after laying off half the company, the CEO publicly states it's because the laid off workers don't have the skills they need for "the new era". I would really like to see in these scenarios the CEO accept a tiny bit of responsibility for their failures to set strategy and over hire, instead of publicly shaming 70 people they chose to hire in the first place. That's a failure in leadership, not in employees.

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

#137

Post by gruez » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 5:49 PM UTC

abuani wrote: post #136

victorbojica wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And would it be better that the whole 100% go under the bus for his own failures?

Did I suggest that? I'm pointing out the blaring hypocrisy of a company sitting on $350M in cash that opted to double the size of their company without having a clear strategy to become profitable. Then after laying off half the company, the CEO publicly states it's because the laid off workers don't have the skills they need for "the new era". I would really like to see in these scenarios the CEO accept a tiny bit o…

>the CEO publicly states it's because the laid off workers don't have the skills they need for "the new era".

Where did he say this?

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

#138

Post by kaashif » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 6:14 PM UTC

SadTrombone wrote: post #90

HDThoreaun wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its a business, not a charity. Just because they have money doesnt mean they should spend on people who arent contributing to the bottom line.

What information do you have that they weren't contributing to the bottom line?

$2.8m revenue with 130 employees is about $21,000 per employee.

The numbers here don't look good.

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

#139

Post by lacker » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 7:25 PM UTC

shash wrote: post #97

justonceokay wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ehh. I don’t love it and it isn’t good optics, but if you can’t find a way to utilize your employeees (such as having a hard time finding a maeket fit for an existing product) then it isn’t your moral obligation to keep paying them. It isn’t clear what employees were laid off ir for what reason either.

The original sin was probably hiring those people for a not-yet-clear business in the first place…

It is not a sin to hire people when you aren't 100% confident your business is going to succeed. That's just how startups work.

Some people are not in a position in their life to take any risk of losing their job, and that's perfectly understandable, but those people should not take a job at a startup.

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

#140

Post by dilyevsky » Sat, Oct 11, 2025, 8:12 PM UTC

Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #80

saltyoldman wrote: post #78

"Replit found its market" HN: It sucks now

maybe HN isn't the market then :p

At the risk of stating the obvious, is it really that surprising people who frequent “hacker” forum don’t appreciate a product pivot pitched specifically to non-coders?