Jason Lemkin Transforms SaaStr with Replit: 7 Apps in production in 3 Months

The Challenge: Trapped in Legacy Systems

Jason Lemkin is a two-time B2B founder who sold his last company to Adobe and has invested in 20-30 top B2B startups. Through his platform SaaStr, he's built a global community with over 50,000 founders and VCs attending events featuring CEOs from Snowflake, MongoDB, HubSpot, and more.

But in the age of AI, Jason faced significant challenges:

Technical constraints: Years of building on WordPress left him dependent on developers who were unreliable. "We had two WordPress developers in a row that just quit," Jason recalls. Even when he could find good developers, he was stuck within WordPress's limitations.

Innovation bottleneck: Jason wanted to help founders in new ways—automatically reading pitch decks, benchmarking startups against industry data, providing AI-powered mentorship. But he lacked the technical capability to bring these visions to life.

Operational pain points: SaaStr was paying an agency $200,000-300,000 annually to review 4,000+ speaker applications. When the agency eventually quit after many years, Jason was left with no scalable solution. "It's almost impossible to review 4,000 pitches," he explains.

The core problem? Jason knew what he wanted to build, but traditional development approaches were too slow, expensive, and constraining.

Why Replit: True End-to-End Software Creation Platform

When Jason decided to explore AI-powered development 100 days ago, he intentionally did minimal research. "I asked Twitter what I should use," he says. The advice was clear but nuanced.

The defining criteria: Jason made his requirements explicit: "I want something that is end-to-end. I want to go from ideation to production without leaving an environment, without hosting somewhere else."

Smart CTOs on Twitter told him: "If you really want to go from ideation to production without leaving an environment, without hosting somewhere else, you should use Replit because it has an integrated database, integrated key store, and integrated hosting. If you use the others, you're going to have to hook up a database and figure out hosting."

What sealed the decision:

• No separate database setup required
• No external hosting configuration needed
• No dev agency necessary
• Integrated deployment pipeline
• True end-to-end platform

"I don't want a massive dev shop project. I don't want to do it again," Jason emphasizes. For someone with his background building software used by millions, the appeal wasn't about learning—it was about speed and removing friction.

Building with Replit: From Micro Apps to Platform Transformation

Over 3 months, Jason built seven production applications serving tens of thousands of users monthly:

1. SaaStr.ai Website Ecosystem

A complete rebuild featuring multiple integrated sub-apps including B2B stock market performance tracking and AI-powered news curation specifically for B2B companies.

2. VC Startup Valuation Calculator

"It's been used 334,835 times in 30 days," Jason notes. "That's something I could not have done without Replit." The calculator provides instant, data-driven valuations for any startup—something no other platform offers for free.

3. AI Pitch Analyzer

Launched two weeks before the interview, incorporating data from 800 VCs and SaaStr's extensive database. Used 900-1,000 times in its first two weeks, it benchmarks every startup against 300,000 data points.

4. Digital Jason / AI Mentor

Used over 100,000 times, this tool incorporates 20 million words of SaaStr content, allowing founders to get advice from a digital version of Jason and other SaaStr speakers.

5. SaaStrLondon.com Event Site

Built in 2-3 days, replacing a Squarespace site. "I just couldn't make it cool in Squarespace anymore," Jason explains. The new site features beautiful sponsor case studies and dynamic content that would have been torture to build in traditional tools.

6. Speaker & Content Grader (The N=1 Game-Changer)

Perhaps his most valuable build: an automated system that instantly reviews and scores all 4,000+ annual speaker submissions across five factors—speaker prominence, educational value, speaking tour status, media appearances, and more.

"It automatically reviews all 4,000. We don't need the agency anymore. We're saving over $200,000 a year, which is interesting. And it's better—90% of it is better—because it's instant. It's real time. No one's sending us angry emails about not hearing back."

7. Comprehensive Startup Benchmarking Tool

In development at the time of interview, this tool will benchmark every startup against SaaStr's vast dataset, telling founders exactly how they compare to peers and their odds of getting funded.

The power of micro apps:
Jason emphasizes that some of his most valuable builds are "N=1 apps"—tools that only his company needs. "For us, it's so valuable because we can interact with thousands of submissions that otherwise would go into a black hole, making what was seemingly unscalable, now possible"

Value Realized: Complete Business Transformation

Immediate Cost Savings

Eliminating the speaker review agency saved SaaStr $200,000+ annually—a hard ROI that pays for Replit many times over. "I don't even honestly look at what I pay. Whether I paid 50 bucks for that or even 500 or more in tokens, I really don't even look at my bill. The value is just so high."

Operational Excellence

The speaker grader transformed a painful, slow process into a more instant experience. Applicants now receive immediate feedback with detailed scoring rather than waiting months for a generic response. "It's doing something that for us, you just couldn't do before."

New Revenue Opportunities

Jason built applications serving tens of thousands of users that would have been impossible with traditional development:

• The valuation calculator alone has 334,835+ uses
• The AI mentor has 100,000+ conversations
• These tools establish SaaStr as the go-to resource for founders

Strategic Flexibility

"I've already totally changed everything that SaaStr does in less than a hundred days. Totally changed it." Jason isn't just building apps—he's fundamentally reshaping how his business operates and serves its community.

Innovation Unleashed

Jason is now returning to his original passion project from 2013—matching 50,000+ community members with opportunities. "I wanted to build this app since 2013. I hired a great dev team, paid them $50,000 back then. They couldn't finish it. This is a new day. I'm going to finish my passion."

The Bigger Picture

Jason's experience with Replit has changed his expectations for all software: "What's obvious after you use Replit is you want every app to work that way. We shouldn't have to learn apps anymore. We should be able to vibe every app."

Lessons for Builders

Jason's journey offers valuable insights for others:

Start simple, then scale: "Don't start with the most complicated thing on planet earth. Start with the simplest thing and build from there."

Focus on what matters: "Make sure it's important to you. If it's important to you, it's the most powerful thing on planet Earth."

Build on what exists: "Look at what I've built. If I could build my own version of that for veterinarians or nurses or swimmers—if I've built it, you can build it."

Embrace the learning curve: "You get better at Replit. There's a million reasons you get better. You need to know what is easy and what is hard."

Use the right platform for the job: "If you can build something on Shopify, you should build it on Shopify and Replit. But if you need to dream it, then vibe it."

The Bottom Line

In 100 days, Jason Lemkin used Replit to save over $200,000, build seven production applications serving hundreds of thousands of users, and completely transform how SaaStr operates—all while bringing decade-old dreams to life. As he puts it: "Don't be skeptical anymore. You can do it today.”

Try Replit now

About SaaStr

What is SaaStr and how did it begin?

SaaStr is the world’s largest community of SaaS executives, founders, and entrepreneurs.

Our goal is to help everyone get from $0 to $100m ARR with less stress and more success. We do that with a combination of industry-leading content and community connections.

The SaaStr Annual is the largest non-vendor event in the industry, with 15,000+ attendees from all across the world coming together in September in the SF Bay Area. And SaaStr Europa brings 3,000+ SaaS execs, founders and VCs together in Europe every June.

SaaStr began in 2012 as a simple WordPress blog and a few answers on Quora sharing Jason Lemkin’s learnings of going from $0 to $100m ARR at EchoSign. This led to our first meet-ups in 2013 and 2014, the first SaaStr Annual in 2015, the industry’s leading podcast in 2016, the first SaaS founder coworking space in 2017, and SaaStr Pro, the first learning management system for SaaS founders, 2018. We also have an affiliated $150m venture fund.

SaaStr has been named one of the Top 100 Blogs for Entrepreneurs by Forbes and one of the 50 Best Websites for Entrepreneurs by Inc. Magazine, and a Top Writer on Quora six times. Jason has been named by Business Insider to the 32 Most Powerful People in Business Technology.