"The YC partner I met had the feedback that an online REPL is not really a startup -- it's just a fun toy -- and that instead, I should join another company building a superficially similar technology."

Interesting, especially since PG has stated that many a good company looks like "just a fun toy" in the beginning. I'd have thought that would be a heuristic YC folks keep in mind, and not use it to dismiss an idea.

Most YC partners do take this idea to heart. Lots of partners we talked to were excited by the fact that we're "easily dismissed by incumbents and extremely useful to outsiders".

that's great to hear! so it seems you just had the bad luck to stumble across an exception to the 'rule'.

I used your product to help teach students AP Computer Science Principles a few years ago, and it was indispensable: absolutely zero hassle set up, and could just bit.ly a link to existing code to work off of. So happy for both of you!

> Months later, after demo-day, Michael told us that they were going to reject us for sure, but they were dissuaded by how exceptionally well we did during the interview.

What do you think contributed to doing "exceptionally well", especially since it sounds like you had a different outlook on the interview?

Thank you! Try it again now it got a lot better :)

I think it was the fact that we've thought through the big questions of our business, as it were, and are able to show the work: how we arrived at the answers, what clues or experiments to run the validate that we have the right answer, and how we could change course if we didn't have the right answer.

They don't expect to have figured everything out -- after all that's what early stage startups are about. However, they expect you to have thought things through. Like there shouldn't be questions at the interview that are fundamentally new.

Finally, I think keeping composure under pressure helped.

repl.it was one of the first platforms I used as I began my journey into the tech world. I very much appreciate the hard work and hours Amjad, Haya, and the rest of the team have put into their product.

With that in mind, I take a little issue with a YC partner saying the repl.it is a "YC Story." On the contrary, I think YC is a part of the "repl.it" story, and they were mistaken to take so long to see the value in the company.

Thank you, proud to hear this :)

I think the "yc story" was more about the interview process etc.

I think it's hilarious that you Rick-Rolled the YC panel! (It might have been wise to state in text that due to circumstances that you didn't have time to record a good video, but it obviously turned out OK...)

Yes, it would've been prudent to do so. Imagine the deep regret I would've felt if it didn't work out ok.

Deep regret? It sounds like you were doing great on your own. YC is fortunate to have you in their portfolio.

Have you guys considered offering a live shared repl/editor (and related tooling) for coding interviews? That would seem like a natural extension to what you already offer.

Yes, coming soon (already available for beta users)

I presume you still gave up 7% equity?

Yes, it's worth it.

Too bad you did away with the API. We were going to use it for https://securityjourney.com/ but found no way to seamlessly create/update a user from our app.

We'll reintroduce an API to create projects/repls and to manage them. The old API was too low-level anyways (you could only evaluate code).

Is there any way to get into a beta? We're about ready to write our own solution, and would love to give you guys money instead.

This was an amazing and inspiring story. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks! :)

This little slice of magic is why I love HN. Thank you for sharing your story.

It's good to know that pg is still hacking, and still around:

he said that it was PG who found us on Hacker News

Wherever you are pg, we miss you!

HN doesn't get enough credit!