Eric Simons

Co-founder and CEO of StackBlitz, makers of Bolt (bolt.new). Former K12 education startup founder; grew up in Chicago and built software since age 13 alongside co-founder Albert Jor. Came to Silicon Valley through the Imagine K12 accelerator in 2012; famously lived in the AOL headquarters for four to five months as a homeless 19-year-old while building his first startup. Did not attend college. Bootstrapped StackBlitz for its first three years before raising; maintained minimal burn through the 2020–21 exuberance. Launched Bolt in October 2024 after seven years of building WebContainer technology; reached $40M ARR within five months with a 20-person team.

Episodes

• Eric Simons on Bolt, WebContainer, and the Text-to-App Revolution — Lenny’s Podcast