In this episode of Frameworks for Growth, Vanta CEO Christina Cacioppo talks with Amjad Masad, Founder and CEO of Replit, about how persistent ideas evolve into breakout products and how founders can stay scrappy while scaling.

Amjad breaks down how Replit handled early competition, carved out space as one of the first AI-native dev platforms, and sustained momentum in a crowded, fast-moving market.

🔑 Topics covered:

00:20 - Introduction

00:41 - Software development trends Amjad is excited about

02:28 - What is Replit

03:21 - How long Amjad has been working on Replit

04:53 - How did Amjad start learning Javascript

06:34 - Why the web felt like the future

08:47 - Why AI feels like the future

12:15 - When models will solve coding

14:24 - How Amjad practices what he does

16:05 - Have the things that cause pain changed

17:22 - How Replit compounded

19:22 - Why Amjad learned SEO

20:12 - The day Replit went viral

24:18 - Navigating skepticism

29:18 - Hiring high agency individuals

35:25 - Replit's innovations being coped by giants

42:36 - Why Amjad wrote an AI manifesto

49:36 - Replit's approach to marketing

52:44 - Amjad's advice for X/Twitter

55:03 - Amjad's thoughts on building community

56:34 - Why powerlifting is similar to building a startup

57:25 - Reading philosophy and influences on AI

1:00:07 - What Amjad would be doing if not working on technology

1:01:43 - Why Amjad chose Foster City

1:03:34 - How Amjad would spend a day with a founder in Foster City

1:04:51 - Unconventional advice for founders

1:08:00 - What Amjad is reading

1:09:34 - The first program Amjad ever wrote

1:09:54 - Amjad's thoughts on layoffs

1:11:26 - Choosing between making Replit bespoke or general

In this episode of Frameworks for Growth, Vanta CEO Christina Cacioppo sits down with Daniela Amodei, President and Co-founder of Anthropic, to discuss what it takes to build both a mission-driven company and a cutting-edge AI research lab.

They explore how Daniela approaches hiring with intention, how to scale responsibly in the age of AI, and what it means to build trust while working on transformative technologies like Claude.

🔑 Topics covered:

00:17 - Introduction

00:45 - Anthropic as an AI safety and research company

02:22 - Balance technical research and commercializing

04:21 - Public benefit corporations (PBCs)

05:50 - Hiring lessons from Anthropic and OpenAI

08:03 - Articulating company values

09:33 - Aligning new employees on company values

12:39 - Non-obvious traits when hiring

15:25 - Balancing thoughtfulness and simplicity with engineering hires

18:50 - Common misconceptions about the future of AI

20:05 - Enterprises are bullish on AI

21:29 - What will be true about AI in 2035

22:57 - Co-founding a company with your sibling

24:08 - A moment where you realized the future is here

25:15 - What Daniela’s reading

25:54 - Interest in East African government and advising them on AI

27:29 - Incorporating as a PBC was the right move

28:25 - Deciding on how to structure their hardware

🚀 To learn more about Vanta helps startups scale, visit us at: vanta.com/startups

In this episode of Frameworks for Growth, Vanta CEO Christina Cacioppo sits down with Garry Tan, President and CEO of Y Combinator, to explore how early-stage startups can find product-market fit in an AI age, when a startup idea is worth pursuing, and what it means to operate in “founder mode.”

Whether you're a founder, operator, or investor, this episode offers actionable startup advice and insight from one of the most influential voices in tech.

🔑 Topics covered (timestamps):

00:11 - Introduction

00:35 - What’s different about today’s tech landscape

02:15 - What does YC try to impress upon their founders

03:41 - Are there more pivots in YC

06:11 - Advice for founders building in AI

08:41 - Scaling with fewer employees

10:34 - What it means to be high agency

14:26 - Advising startups on design and taste

15:31 - Founders should work in call centers

17:24 - Vibe coding and knowledge work

18:42 - Will AI make it easier or harder to pick startups

23:01 - Are YC companies shrinking in size over time

24:29 - Running Initialized Capital vs. running YC

26:57 - Flow state at a startup vs. at big companies

27:30 - Why more billionaires is a good thing

28:23 - Frameworks and advice for startup founders

29:11 - Advantages of being a first-time founder

30:31 - Do things that don’t scale

31:51 - Knowing when you’ve found product market fit

32:38 - Garry on AI regulation

34:58 - Open source AI

36:31 - Garry on being a content creator

39:09 - What would a Garry Tan LLM get wrong

41:49 - Lightning round

43:43 - Letting people go at a startup

🚀 To learn more about Vanta helps startups scale, visit us at: vanta.com/startups