Inside Bolt: From near-death to ~$40m ARR in 5 months—one of the fastest-growing products in history | Eric Simons (founder and CEO of StackBlitz)

1. Empower Non-Technical Builders

Leverage AI-powered tools to enable non-technical individuals (PMs, designers, entrepreneurs) to directly build production-grade web and mobile apps through prompting, translating their vision into software.

2. Develop AI-Centric PM Skills

Cultivate strong Product Management skills, including defining scope, articulating requirements, and debugging, as these are crucial for effectively interacting with and leveraging AI developer agents.

3. Master Problem Definition, Articulation

Develop expertise in identifying user needs, clearly articulating problems, and crafting precise requests for AI tools, as this significantly improves efficiency and the quality of AI-generated solutions.

4. Prioritize Company Survival

As a founder, prioritize keeping the company alive for as long as possible, as perseverance increases the chances of discovering a successful product or market fit.

5. Cultivate Long-Term Team Commitment

Foster a core team of committed individuals who stay for many years, as this stability is essential for making and executing long-term, deep technology bets and achieving rapid growth.

6. Maximize Team Context, Agency

Operate with fewer people, ensuring each team member has high context across the company and the agency to independently solve problems end-to-end, fostering trust and rapid execution.

7. Trust Contrarian Convictions

As an entrepreneur, be confident in your judgment calls, especially when they go against consensus, as these contrarian views can lead to significant breakthroughs.

8. Explore New Enabling Technologies

When a new technology enables significant new capabilities, dedicate time to explore and build within that space, even without an immediate problem, as major opportunities may emerge.

9. Re-evaluate Ideas with New AI

Revisit previously unfeasible product ideas or projects when new, more capable AI models are released, as they can unlock possibilities that were impossible just months prior.

10. Focus AI on Deterministic Domains

When developing or applying AI, prioritize deterministic domains like software development, where clear success/failure states allow for highly effective reinforcement learning and reliable output.

11. Delegate Repetitive Coding to AI

Allow AI to handle repetitive, ‘copy-pasta’ coding tasks (like CRUD apps) so engineers can focus on intellectually stimulating challenges, complex debugging, and difficult problems.

12. Shift Developer Focus from UI

Expect a shift where developers focus less on routine UI work and more on complex challenges or code review, while PMs and designers lead the charge in crafting user experiences with AI tools.

13. Develop AI Unstuck Skills

Cultivate skills in helping AI tools get ‘unstuck’ when they encounter complex issues, potentially becoming a certified expert to guide non-developers through AI limitations and debugging.

14. Maintain Low Burn Rate

Operate with a very low burn rate, bootstrapping early on and making every dollar stretch, to maximize the number of ‘shots on goal’ and increase chances of success.

15. Default to “No” Spending

Until there’s clear product-market pull, default to ’no’ on spending, negotiate aggressively for discounts on software, and keep the burn rate as low as possible to extend runway and maximize opportunities.

16. Resist Pressure to Overspend

Resist external pressures to rapidly scale headcount and burn rate, especially during periods of exuberance, as conservative spending can be crucial for long-term survival and eventual success.

17. Hire Passionate Users

When hiring, prioritize individuals who are intrinsically motivated to build great things, check their ego at the door, and ideally, are already passionate users of your product or community members.

18. Balance Feedback, Visionary Bets

When prioritizing, balance direct customer feedback (fixing what’s ’not tasty’) with visionary bets on new features that you believe will be ‘killer dishes,’ even if not explicitly requested.

19. Keep PRDs Minimal, Outcome-Focused

Keep Product Requirements Documents (PRDs) light and focused on minimal context and key outcomes to ensure clarity, prevent information overload, and avoid snowballing complexity during development.

20. Prioritize High-Fidelity Prototypes

Use tools like Bolt to create high-fidelity, working software prototypes that convey the ‘feel’ of the product, as these are more effective than static designs and accelerate product development.

21. Charge for Tangible ROI

When a product provides a clear, tangible return on investment, users are willing to pay more for increased usage or advanced features, so price accordingly.

22. Focus on Real Value

Build products that solve real problems, enabling users to achieve significantly more for less cost, as this strong value proposition drives adoption in a market of rational actors.

23. Prioritize Speed and Reliability

When building or evaluating development tools, prioritize speed and reliability, as these subtle qualities significantly enhance user experience and product effectiveness.

24. Strive for Extreme Simplicity

Aim for extreme simplicity in product UI and functionality, as even popular tools can be overly complicated for users, especially for building functional applications.

25. Design for Client-Side Compute

For products aiming for massive scale and a permissive free tier, design the technology to run compute locally on the end-user’s device (e.g., in the browser) to achieve zero latency, transient costs, and avoid server-side abuse issues.

26. Launch Minimal Viable Product

Launch a product quickly (e.g., built in 90 days) even if basic features are missing, and observe immediate market reception and ARR growth to validate demand.

27. Ship Imperfect, Iterate Fast

Don’t delay launch for perfection; ship products even with significant missing features (e.g., no mobile responsive view) and iterate quickly based on user feedback and demand.

28. Trust Data Over Skepticism

When experiencing unprecedented growth, trust the sustained positive data and market demand over initial skepticism or fear of decline, and adapt quickly to meet that demand.

29. Communicate with AI Like Developer

When interacting with AI development tools, communicate as you would with a human developer: be specific about key requirements but also allow for creative freedom on aesthetic elements like ‘make it prettier.’

30. Build Greenfield Apps with AI

For greenfield projects, leverage AI tools to build production-grade software (e.g., a CRM with AI and billing) in weeks for hundreds of dollars, significantly reducing cost and time compared to traditional agency development.

31. Use AI for Smaller Codebases

While AI tools can open existing repos, they are currently best suited for integrating with smaller existing codebases (e.g., marketing sites, admin panels) rather than very large applications with thousands of files.

32. Convert Figma to Live Apps

Use Bolt’s integration (e.g., bolt.new/your-figma-url) to instantly convert Figma designs into full-stack web or mobile applications, then continue prompting for further functionality.

33. Leverage AI Agents as Developers

Integrate AI agents (like a Slack bot) into team workflows to act as a developer, interpreting conversation history and design links to rapidly build and modify applications.

34. Build Personal Website with AI

To experience the power of AI development, use a tool like Bolt to instantly generate a personal website by simply pasting your LinkedIn bio and preferences, then deploy it.

35. Utilize Specific Product Tools

Use tools like Linear for engineering roadmapping, Notion for PRDs, Figma for design, and Bolt for design and high-fidelity prototyping to streamline product development.

36. Conduct Daily All-Hands Syncs

For small, rapidly growing teams, conduct daily all-hands video calls to ensure 0% finality loss in communication, audit progress, and discuss everything front-to-back, though this may evolve as the team scales.

37. Start Companies for Fun

Approach entrepreneurship with a mindset of having fun and enjoying the journey, as this perspective helps navigate challenges and embrace uncertainty.

38. Pursue Intrinsic Interests

Follow your intrinsic interests and passion for deep specialization, but critically evaluate the value of traditional college education, especially if it involves significant debt, when free online learning is available.

39. Prioritize A/B Testing

Implement robust A/B testing and feature management platforms (like Epo) to increase experimentation velocity, drive growth, and rigorously analyze new feature performance.

40. Invest in Boring Real Estate

Consider investing in ‘boring’ real estate funds focused on diversification and dividends for steady, long-term net worth growth, rather than seeking high-adrenaline, volatile investments.

41. Overnight Success Takes Years

Recognize that apparent ‘overnight successes’ often result from years of foundational work and perseverance, so be prepared for a long-term journey.