weisser
@julianweisser • 31,671 subscribers
Championing @solofounders (with support + $100k) | @sologrants | @joinodf
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$1.5M ARR in 2 weeks. Zero (human) teammates. Solo Founders Podcast is live with of Polsia, an AI that runs your company while you sleep. His solo founder rule: 80% AI, 20% taste. 0:00 — How "solo founder" has changed with AI 2:40 — Scoping and trusting AI agents to ship 5:30 — Cloud Kitchens with Travis Kalanick 9:52 — Mount Fuji: Where Polsia was born 13:55 — 80/20 rule: 80% AI, 20% taste 21:24 — Building for yourself, not imaginary customers 23:10 — The game that inspired Polsia 29:55 — Polsia as an economy: The bigger vision 40:59 — How Polsia actually works today 51:35 — Why not just build businesses yourself? 57:55 — Advice for new builders: Push AI to the edge
weisser523,209 görüntüleme • 4 ay önce
He sold a company at 16. Then raised $3M at 19 without a co-founder. Today he gave the whole thing away. supermemory now runs fully local, self-contained, and the binary is open source. Solo Founders Podcast ep 14 is live with Dhravya Shah of Supermemory. 00:49 How a side project became a company 08:57 "Building was my way of doing art" 14:35 Saying no to VCs for 9 months 24:44 Launching Supermemory Local 29:29 Killing his own viral hit, mid-fundraise 46:39 Why ChatGPT "fails" memory benchmarks on purpose 52:57 The co-founder breakup that made him go solo 01:10:19 The case for solo founding
weisser138,114 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce
Today we’re unveiling Solo Grants. We give microgrants ($100-1,000) to individuals pursuing passion projects. We’ve already given 50 out and we’re just getting started. Solo Founders Podcast ep 19 is live with ari dutilh to discuss it. 00:09 The announcement 07:04 Microgrants 101: the world of no-strings money 14:35 The few-hundred-dollar gap 19:02 The grantee who asked for $100 less 21:56 A $500 check from a stranger 32:33 Solo, together
weisser33,014 görüntüleme • 12 gün önce
Solo founders are underestimated. We’re changing that. In May we launched the Solo Founders Program (<1% acceptance rate) for six founders to build together in SF. 60 days in: millions raised, 35k GitHub stars, rapid growth. Join us: Fall 2025 applications close soon.
weisser611,021 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce
"Millions of people creating with the same tool for totally different use cases, but the output looks the same. That's where the feeling of AI slop comes from." She's making it her mission to put an end to it. Solo Founders Podcast ep 18 is live with Thais Castello Branco of . 00:47 Why she went solo 02:08 What "taste" actually is 11:30 A quirk on one, slop on millions 13:09 The real cause: volume 19:37 Why it had to be a "lab" 30:04 You're bad at commissioning AI 44:01 Branding, Liquid Death and what lasts 58:34 The bear and bull case for going solo
weisser32,822 görüntüleme • 19 gün önce
Solo-founded $2B company. Used by OpenAI, Anthropic, Replit. Solo Founders ep 13 is live with Michael Grinich of WorkOS. 07:49 The co-founder "blood bond" is a myth 10:55 There's only room for one Zuck at Meta 32:51 Pivots are the most traumatic thing you can do to a business 43:18 The best ideas always look like bad ideas 50:14 Sales is the ultimate expression of the company's value 53:57 The "founder pixie dust" no hire can replace 01:07:42 You only get one life. Why not swing as hard as you can?
weisser47,075 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce
He tried a co-founder and realized it was a mistake. Then he built solo and raised $50M. Solo Founders Podcast ep 17 is live with Flo Crivello of Lindy. 06:53 The bar for a co-founder: if there's a doubt, there's no doubt 07:55 Why vesting schedules are broken 12:23 From Uber to an accidental company 19:37 When the market moves on 23:32 Cutting the team and pivoting to Lindy 26:54 The real cure for burnout 43:29 The bear and bull case for going solo
weisser23,581 görüntüleme • 26 gün önce
$9M ARR. No VC. Solo founder. Solo Founders Podcast ep 6 is live with Yasser of Chatbase. We talk about: 00:03 Discovering RAG before ChatGPT existed 11:44 First Stripe payment 30 minutes after launch 14:37 "Free solo" founding, beyond indie hacking 27:39 Why bootstrapping changes the definition of success 35:37 The "benevolent dictatorship" of solo founding 44:43 Scaling bootstrapped, profitability from day one 54:14 The B2B playbook: pricing, content, cold outbound 1:08:20 Bear and bull case for solo founding
weisser63,427 görüntüleme • 3 ay önce
6 pivots. Cease-and-desist from Microsoft. Then Harvard picked his AI over ChatGPT. Solo Founders Podcast ep 7 is live with rahul of Julius AI. We talk about: How Rahul ended up solo The football analogy for building momentum Why 8/10 co-founder teams are fighting in private "I need to be the worst coder on the team" Why "less cash, more equity" is a green flag Six pivots and the Microsoft cease-and-desist Why Sam Altman can't sell you a pen (but can sell you AGI) Rahul's bear and bull case for solo founding
weisser45,515 görüntüleme • 3 ay önce
500 rejections. 0 co-founders. $300M valuation. Solo Founders Podcast Episode 2 is live with Paul Klein IV of Browserbase. Paul tried to find a co-founder. Nobody took the role. So he started Browserbase alone. Now they've raised $67.5M and have customers like Perplexity and Vercel. All in under two years. His take: "First-time founders should not be solo founders." 03:39 – StreamClub: from 72-hour coding binge to #1 on Product Hunt 06:41 – The 3,000-word memo that became Browserbase 08:32 – Solo by circumstance: co-founder dating and getting rejected 09:50 – The five-tool founder 18:48 – Company culture as a mirror of your flaws 30:46 – 500 rejections and hiring from non-traditional backgrounds 35:44 – Quarterback → head coach → GM: how the CEO role evolves 45:08 – The case against solo founding 51:49 – The case for solo founding
weisser57,983 görüntüleme • 4 ay önce
I spent 7 years helping people finding co-founders (1,000 startups, $10B) Then I went all-in on Solo Founders. Solo Founders Podcast ep 8 live. I swapped seats and was interviewed by David J Phillips (solo founder of Fondo.com) We talk about: 01:46 The Co-Founder Myth & Origins of ODF 06:23 The Moment That Sparked Solo Founders 08:30 The New $100K Investment 12:31 Why There's No Demo Day 17:34 Solo Founders Program 20:59 Why Startups Really Implode 27:15 The Solo Founding Trend & Denominator Delusion 30:55 When to Raise a Seed Round 32:10 True Solo, Free Solo, Juiced Solo 36:40 The Tailwinds Behind Solo Founding 40:03 The Bear Case for Solo Founding 43:12 The Bull Case: The Company Only Dies If You Do 47:14 Solo Together, Not Solo Alone 49:08 Outro & How to Apply
weisser41,583 görüntüleme • 2 ay önce
See the artists you love while you still can — it will change your life Bob Weir has moved on. Lucky to have met him when I first visited SF 14 yrs ago. His music rides shotgun through my life. Played til the end: 3 nights in GGP just weeks into his final treatments. Inspiring.
weisser62,126 görüntüleme • 6 ay önce
New experiment for ODF23: pay-what-you-want ODF22 was our best cohort (NPS/economics) but we wanted to try something new. Not changing: no equity to join, no right to invest. We're not a VC's dealflow hack. We help more people start the best companies together. Apply!
weisser164,012 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce
He took his hospitality startup public at a $2B valuation. Then the board pushed him out. That same month he started over and raised from Sequoia as a solo founder to reshape travel (again). Solo Founders Podcast ep 16 is live with Francis Davidson of Odessia. 08:45 Starting Sonder at 19, subletting students' apartments 09:45 Scaling to a billion-dollar company 11:40 Why he went solo when his co-founders were great 26:45 Idea to launch in five months 28:47 Why he skipped the MVP 42:07 Why the one-person billion-dollar company is a myth 56:03 Founder mode vs. hiring executives 01:01:08 The bull case for going solo
weisser14,040 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce
He had 4 co-founder breakups across 4 startups. Then he went solo and hit $10M ARR. Solo Founders Podcast ep 11 is live with David J Phillips of Fondo.com. 05:04 Refounding Fondo with $40K left 09:00 The investor email that pivoted the company 17:03 Find one investor who's in your corner 20:44 The $40K filter that surfaced Fondo from a list 28:37 Bezos heuristic: build for what stays the same 34:04 Why one big customer wasn't product-market fit 36:00 Delaware franchise tax: 100 free filings → first 10 customers 49:22 Your co-founder lives in Claude now
weisser22,664 görüntüleme • 2 ay önce