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

This episode explores the meteoric rise of Bolt, a text-to-app building tool, and its implications for the future of software development. Against the backdrop of StackBlitz, the company behind Bolt, nearly shutting down, the launch of Bolt resulted in an unprecedented growth trajectory, reaching 20 million ARR within two months and approaching 40 million ARR shortly after. More significantly, this explosive growth was achieved with a small team of 15-20 people, highlighting the power of a focused, long-term technology bet (WebContainer) and a highly cohesive team. For instance, the company's ability to run an operating system within a user's browser, unlike competitors relying on cloud servers, enabled unparalleled speed and reliability. As the discussion pivoted to prioritization, the company's daily all-hands meetings and lean PRDs were emphasized as key to navigating rapid growth and feature requests. The interview concluded with a discussion on the evolving role of PMs in an AI-driven world, suggesting that product-focused individuals with strong communication skills will be increasingly valuable as AI handles more of the technical implementation. This means for the future of software development that the lines between product management, design, and engineering are blurring, with a focus on problem articulation and solution growth becoming paramount.