We were going to shut down our company…now we’re worth $700M | Eric Simons (Bolt)

We were going to shut down our company…now we’re worth $700M | Eric Simons (Bolt)

Author: Peter Yang February 23, 2025 Duration: 48:22

My guest today is Eric Simons.

Eric is the CEO of Bolt, the AI coding platform that has exploded from 0 to 3M users in less than a year.

Eric gave me a live demo of building a $2B mobile app from scratch with Bolt, how his “overnight” success was seven years in the making, and how real product teams use Bolt to get work done faster.

This episode is brought to you by Vanta — Join 9,000+ companies like Atlassian and Quora who use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time. Get $1000 off at vanta.com/peter

Timestamps:

(00:00) From almost shutting down to $20M ARR in 2 months

(01:20) Watch Bolt build Spotify with a single prompt

(03:59) Live demo of building a $2B mobile app in 15 min

(05:16) How to test your prototypes on mobile with Expo

(10:03) Redesigning UX just by pasting in a screenshot

(15:00) "Vibe coding" secrets straight from Eric

(18:38) How Bolt will solve the AI debugging doom loop

(24:34) The AI prototyping use case that most people aren't thinking about

(27:21) The inside story of scaling Bolt from 0 to 3M users

(41:10) Why AI products are like surfboards in a tsunami

Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/building-a-billion-dollar-app-with-bolt-ai

Where to find Eric:

X: https://x.com/ericsimons40

Website: bolt.new

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For anyone building the future, Behind the Craft is a conversation with Peter Yang that moves beyond theory and into the tangible details of creation. This podcast lives in the messy, rewarding space where ideas become real products. Each episode is built on candid interviews with experts who have been in the trenches, dissecting the pivotal decisions, the unexpected hurdles, and the hard-won lessons that rarely make it into a polished case study. You’ll hear the unvarnished stories behind the features and companies shaping our world, focusing on the practical frameworks and mental models that effective product leaders and creators rely on daily. It’s about understanding the craft from the inside out-the strategic shifts, the team dynamics, the user insights that truly move the needle. Tune in for a direct, no-fluff dialogue designed to accelerate your own journey, providing actionable guidance you can apply immediately to level up your own work. This is where the blueprint meets the build.
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