weisser
@julianweisser • 30,935 subscribers
Championing @solofounders (with support + $100k) | @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
weisser515,876 views • 3 months ago
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?
weisser34,120 views • 8 days ago
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.
weisser610,781 views • 10 months ago
$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 views • 1 month ago
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
weisser41,048 views • 1 month ago
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
weisser45,392 views • 1 month ago
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
weisser22,061 views • 22 days ago
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
weisser57,043 views • 2 months ago
55% of unicorn companies have been founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants. Unblocking immigration is one of the most important problems of this generation to ensure America stays ahead. Minn built Lighthouse to make it easier (and faster) to navigate the immigration process. Solo Founders episode 12 is live: 0:49 - From AI investor to immigration firm, solo 11:47 - The six-figure sale that made it real 13:54 - Company building is a mirror 19:36 - The anonymous survey she sent 20 friends 24:50 - Complicated vs complex problems 29:54 - Lessons from her first co-founder 45:36 - Talent infrastructure for frontier tech 54:51 - The case for solo founding
weisser12,962 views • 15 days ago
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.
weisser61,743 views • 4 months ago
Her best friend passed away. She built an AI to keep talking to him. Now 30M people use Replika. Solo Founders Podcast ep 4 is live with Eugenia Kuyda. Former journalist, now 2x solo founder, who's been building consumer AI since 2014. As if Replika wasn't ambitious enough, she just raised $20M for wabi to help people create personal software. Her take: storytelling is the rarest founder skill. Vision comes from one person. Don't dilute authorship by randomly assigning co-founder titles to make VCs happy. 00:12 Is there really one founder calling the shots anyway? 01:58 Why "designed by committee" fails 03:28 Origin story: from early language models to Replika 22:57 Why people feel blocked without co-founders 25:32 The co-founder pressure trap 34:33 Authorship vs team sport 41:02 Wabi, creativity, and personal software 59:22 Building elite teams as a solo founder 01:09:03 The bear case for solo 01:11:59 The bull case for solo
weisser34,201 views • 2 months ago
25-30% of his portfolio lose a co-founder before Series A. Solo Founders Podcast ep 3 is live Charles Hudson of Precursor Ventures has invested in 500+ companies as a solo GP. He's our first VC guest. His take: the co-founder consensus is broken, and you should never give away 40% of your company just to make fundraising easier. 00:59 — Why the co-founder consensus is wrong 02:57 — The 500+ company data set 03:37 — Dead equity and cap table damage 07:21 — Rivalry and resentment 09:29 — The "team sport" analogy deconstructed 11:47 — Talented solo founder vs. mismatched team 13:37 — The emotional journey of solo founding 15:28 — Solo founder advantages 21:07 — Don't give away 40% to fundraise easier 23:25 — Authorship 27:03 — Fundraising advice for solo founders 28:28 — Don't apologize for being solo 36:45 — The solo GP / solo founder kinship 41:06 — Bear case for solo founding 43:22 — Bull case for solo founding
weisser34,761 views • 2 months ago
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!
weisser163,768 views • 1 year ago
He quit Tesla to start a company but it wasn't a smooth ride. It took 14 (!!) GTM pivots but now he's on track for $100M this year. Solo Founders Podcast ep 10 is live with Jimmy Douglas of Plug. Chapters: 00:00 Cold open 06:52 Running the largest used-EV operation in the world 13:25 Disprove, don't validate: the Tesla muscle 15:30 Reality doesn't negotiate / 14 GTM pivots 20:35 The fake-board-meeting question, 16 to 429 sellers 26:03 "You must have a co-founder" is the worst factory setting 37:46 Lost $3K on the first sale: what market pull feels like 44:12 Raising a Series A in the EV hellhole 52:09 Self-manufactured constraints: Elon's superpower 01:03:11 SaaS apocalypse and the new venture playbook
weisser13,455 views • 29 days ago
One life gets saved each year for every 115 officers on his platform. Solo Founders Podcast ep 5 is live with Daniel Francis of Abel Police. Daniel dropped out of high school, taught himself to code, impersonated a laid-off Twitter employee to get hired (then fired) by Elon. His life changed when a friend called him for help escaping domestic violence. That led to 39 ride-alongs and AI that writes police reports from body cam footage. Daniel's rule: "I'm the floor on engineering talent and the ceiling on being an asshole." 01:22 Origin of Solo Founders 05:40 Co-founders of convenience are far more common than true partnerships 06:49 "Too prickly" for co-founders 07:26 Giving 50% to a co-founder makes no sense for engineers 13:21 Dropping out of high school 21:46 The domestic violence story behind Abel Police 26:26 Getting hired (and fired) by Elon Musk 37:24 Solo founder authorship (Apple vs. Google) 44:33 "I'm the floor on talent, ceiling on being an asshole" 52:52 Ride-alongs and embedding with Richmond PD
weisser21,555 views • 2 months ago