How anyone can build a business with AI

ALSO: Search gets AI upgrade

Author

Zain Kahn
July 17, 2025

Welcome back, Superhuman. All it takes is one good idea. These days, you don’t need funding, a team, or even coding skills to bring a new product to life — just an AI-powered app builder like Replit. We talked to CEO Amjad Masad about what’s driving the startup’s meteoric rise.

Also Today: Learn how to create any app with AI, and get the latest prompts, headlines, and social posts.

FROM THE FRONTIER

Replit CEO Amjad Masad: How anyone can build a business with AI

In less than six months, AI app builder Replit has remarkably jumped from $10M to $100M ARR. There’s clearly something big going on here. We spoke with CEO Amjad Masad to figure out what’s behind his company’s meteoric rise.

Here are some key takeaways:

Replit optimizes for outcome: Instead of focusing on financial metrics, the startup looks at how users are actually benefiting from the platform. “Everyone at the company gets fired up when an entrepreneur builds a $1M business with Replit or a company saves millions of dollars,” Masad said.

Should I still learn to code? It depends. If that’s the main thing holding you back from turning your idea into reality, then you probably don’t need to spend a year or two taking programming classes. If you just start building, you’ll inevitably pick up some coding skills along the way.

The best vibe coders are good communicators: “The people closest to the problems have the best ideas to solve these problems,” Masad said. Besides writing detailed prompts, you also need to have insight into what you’re trying to achieve and all the steps you need to take to get there. Curiosity and grit help a lot, too.

One recent example: Instead of paying $150k for special optimization software, someone at a skincare company recently built their own with Replit for $400. Then they turned around and sold it to their boss for $32k. “At some point, Replit Agent will be able to abstract everything away, and what’s left is you and your problems and your creativity,” Masad said.

PRESENTED BY IBM

IBM’s API Agent brings agentic AI to API Connect, transforming prompts into production-ready APIs.

  • Let AI handle design, validation, and deployment to Code Engine automatically.

  • Manage standards and cut manual steps for fast API delivery.

  • Harness agentic AI to turn your API ideas into secured, production-ready reality.

TODAY IN AI

Reflection AI’s new model achieves SOTA results by training on your company’s data. Source: Reflection AI

1. Google Search gets advanced AI upgrades: If you dread picking up the phone to make calls, Google has you covered. You can now ask the platform to call a business and ask about availability or pricing on your behalf. Meanwhile, subscribers can now access Gemini 2.5 Pro directly in Search’s AI Mode, meaning you no longer have to navigate to Gemini for help with complicated reasoning tasks. The same goes for Deep Search, the tool that conducts hundreds of searches to generate detailed reports on any topic.

2. Google alums unveil ‘best-in-class’ coding agent: Two ex-Google researchers think agents spend way too much time generating code and not enough time actually learning how to code in the first place. Their new startup, Reflection AI, just unveiled Asimov, a model that flips the script by training on a company’s entire dataset — even mundane things like emails and Slack messages — to piece together how it went from idea to product. That helps Asimov achieve state-of-the-art performance with planning and coding tasks, even compared to rivals like Claude Code.

3. Anthropic ‘Uno Reverses’ Anysphere’s poaching attempt: Cursor-maker Anysphere dealt a major blow to Anthropic two weeks ago when it announced it had swiped two of the company’s top execs. Now, the Information reports that Anthropic is seeking its revenge — by hiring back Boris Cherny and Cat Wu, who both helped lead Claude Code. This comes as investors reportedly consider valuing Anthropic at a whopping $100B based on new revenue projections.

THE AI ACADEMY

  • Go to Emergent and sign up with code SUPERHUMAN (credits included!)

  • Enter your prompt

Sample prompt: "Clone [website name or paste URL here]" or "Create a travel planning app with itinerary management and budget tracking."

  • Hit the arrow button and watch Emergent's Agent analyze and create a build plan

  • Answer a few clarifying questions like you're chatting with a dev friend

  • Test your live preview — click around and explore

  • Click "Save to GitHub" to version control your code (even though you didn't write any!)

  • Hit "Deploy" and choose a custom domain — your product goes live instantly!

Pro Tips for Better Results:

  • No API keys? Start with: "Build an MVP using mock data instead of real APIs"

  • Need guidance? Ask: "Don't code yet — explain how we should approach [specific feature]"

  • Want refinements? Say: "Modify the homepage to look like [describe style]"

  • Add new features: "Include a dark mode toggle and user authentication."

PRESENTED BY LAUNCH

Just describe your idea, “build me a calendly clone,” and Launch generates it instantly with a built-in database, integrations (Stripe, Google Auth), and real human support.

Try it at no cost and save 10% on Copilot Plan (real human support) with the code: SUPERLAUNCH10

IN THE KNOW

What’s trending on socials and headlines today

📹 Model Mashup: X user @fofrAI combined Flux Pro and Seedance to make a custom video model that generates some of the most realistic AI-generated footage I’ve seen. You can try it via Replicate, or see more examples here.

😰 Close Call: A human programmer eked out a win over OpenAI’s model in a recent coding contest — but just barely.

🖼️ Turning Heads: Perplexity creative ambassador Gizem Akdag has a knack for making her Midjourney-created images go viral. After checking out some of her recent creations, I can see why.

👽 Twilight Zone: A user was making an instrumental song on Suno when the music-gen platform spontaneously inserted an eerie “alien language” into their track. Listen to it here.

Lightricks, the startup behind popular photo editing app Facetune, just unveiled an open weights model called LTXV that can generate 60-second clips, producing outputs up to eight times longer than its rivals.

ChatGPT Plus subscribers can now use Record mode, which lets you transcribe and summarize audio recordings, on the platform’s macOS app. The startup also appears to be prepping a new set of productivity agents.

Amazon Web Services launched a new platform that lets companies design and deploy agents capable of analyzing proprietary data, automating repetitive tasks, and more.

PRODUCTIVITY

5 New AI Tools to Boost Your Productivity

  • 🧑‍💻 WorkPPT: Generate slides in a few seconds with AI.

  • ⚡️ Naptha: A modular AI platform that lets developers build applications, conduct research, and scale cooperative agents on the web.

  • 💼 Keepmind: Turn your notes into mind maps, flashcards, and quizzes.

  • 🖼️ Comet: Perplexity’s AI browser for enhanced productivity.

  • 💁 Depositphotos: Convert a simple text prompt into unique pictures.

* indicates a promoted tool, if any

PROMPT STATION

Critical Thinking Through Inquiry

Prompt: "Generate a list of thought-provoking, open-ended questions about [topic] that stimulate deeper critical thinking and exploration. Focus on questions that challenge assumptions, reveal nuances, and encourage further inquiry into the subject."

Source: THE_JOB__ on X

Full Throttle

Source: sergindesign

ChatGPT Prompt: 3:4 POV of a Formula 1 driver during a high-stakes lap, weaving through tight corners and accelerating hard out of each turn. Dashboard lights blink rapidly, engine roars thunderously, tires screech under pressure, and gear shifts crack through the mix. Cars blur as they whiz past, the cockpit vibrates intensely with each maneuver. Sunlight glints off the polished track surface, reflections flash across the helmet visor. Occasional team radio snippets crackle in, heightening tension. Cinematic motion blur enhances the sense of speed, with sleek, high-budget motorsport cinematography — dramatic speed ramps, intense close-up moments, dynamic lighting, and rich, stylized color grading. Ultra-detailed, 4K, immersive and thrilling.

Whenever you’re ready to take the next step

Grow customers & revenue: Join companies like Amazon, Hubspot, and Salesforce. Showcase your product to our 1M+ readers and 2M+ followers on socials. Get in touch.

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Until next time — Zain & the Superhuman AI team