While AI coding startups like Cursor raise brow-raising rounds on barely three years of existence, Replit’s path to a $3 billion valuation has been anything but swift. For CEO Amjad Masad, who’s been building tools to democratize programming since 2009, it’s a story of persistence through multiple failed pivots, years stuck at the same revenue plateau, and a near-death moment that forced him to cut half his staff.








