ODF

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[ODF @joinodf]

80% of the Solo Founders Program's first cohort were ODF alumni.

Hear about their experiences building solo, together:

[weisser @julianweisser]

It’s the one year anniversary of the Solo Founders Program.

The first cohort sat down to talk about building solo, together.

Ep 24 is live w/ @aldormous, @chaaai, @NamanyayG, and @DhravyaShah.

07:01 "Retention is growth"
12:53 Pulling the thread through three ideas
21:15 Free users vs. a real business
25:09 "My co-founder was my dad. I was 17."
31:04 What "solo, together" means

[Solo Founders @solofounders]

“I don't mean that you should keep going with the thing that's not working.”

Solo Founders CEO Julian Weisser on the difference between persistence and repeating a draining approach:

“Change what you're doing and find something where you can actually gain energy from new momentum.”

[weisser @julianweisser]

The cure to burnout is not rest, it's momentum.

Solo Talk is back:

Six solo founders touched on this in six different ways. I rewatched their episodes and pulled a clip from each that deserved more commentary.

00:47 Make things for the love of the game (@DhravyaShah)
03:55 Company-building is the closest thing to art (@FDavidsonT)
06:31 The ten-year test for picking a problem (@thaiscbranco_)
10:29 What two years of chewing glass taught him (@Altimor)
14:25 Do the work you avoid, first (@clairevo)
17:51 Don't hire yourself out of building (@pbakaus)

[weisser @julianweisser]

✅ 2nd Annual Builders who Run Angel Island Summit and BBQ

Perfect weather and people.

See you next year or at the weekly runs

(our 128th week in a row is this Saturday - you can rsvp at @builderswhorun )

[Solo Founders @solofounders]

Congrats on the huge update, Eugenia!

When @ekuyda joined us earlier this year, she described going from months of app development to “one prompt and it’s there”.

It's cool to see Wabi taking this to a whole other level now with group chats and collaboration.

[Solo Founders @solofounders]

"Julian was the first check."

@Dhravyashah was 18 when VCs started DMing him about Supermemory, one of the fastest-growing repos on GitHub.

He wasn't raising: "This was a side project of mine. I had no idea what I was doing."

So he waited, and launched exactly when he thought there should be a round. Half a million views on day 1 of the Solo Founders Program.

Dhravya Shah on the Profiles Podcast with @omarwasm.

[weisser @julianweisser]

micro1 just announced it hit $1B annual run rate with no 996, no office mandate and no forced weekends.

@aliansarinik's take on 996: “very cheesy… very cringey overall.”

Drop arbitrary rules and model ideal behavior.

“Our culture is very hardcore but we’re also very kind.”

[weisser @julianweisser]

News: We're taking @builderswhorun back to Angel Island for our 2nd Annual BBQ/run.

Next Saturday (Oct 17)
- Ferry
- 5 mile run or hike
- BBQ on the beach

Builders are welcome to bring +1s: co-founders, BF/GF, spouses, and kids!

Like + reply to join us!

[ODF @joinodf]

@julianweisser @builderswhorun Last year doubled as an ODF alumni reunion as well.

[weisser @julianweisser]

"There are about 150 companies signing up every single day."

Ali shut down a $7M run-rate startup to build what's now a $4B company.

Solo Founders Podcast ep 31 is live with @aliansarinik of @micro1_ai.

04:10 The first thing he ever sold online
17:30 Three signals it's time to move on
24:40 The all-in Loom that deleted the revenue
31:45 "Only the founding team can inject risk"
35:50 He never knew co-founders existed
43:40 Threads, final actions, zero meetings
53:30 Inside the AI data wars
1:01:50 Why micro1 won't sell to America's adversaries
1:07:30 The case for and against going solo

[weisser @julianweisser]

Slack was built before AI and you can tell.

This solo founder raised $20M to build the workspace for humans and agents.

Solo Founders Podcast ep 30 is live with @saradu of @andocorporation.

01:19 Two companies, two motivations
05:29 A problem worth ten years
08:43 Why now, and why so few competitors
19:36 Agents are coworkers, not tools
33:15 The locked office building
37:07 An agent's first 90 days
42:53 Trust runs backwards with agents
54:05 Georgia to SF at 17
1:09:30 The bear and bull case for going solo

[weisser @julianweisser]

Solo founding will become the default.

We’re building the infrastructure to improve each solo founder’s likelihood of success.

Thanks Barron’s for the conversation.

[Builders who Run @builderswhorun]

Alright tomorrow is the 123rd (!!) week in a row of Builders who Run.

Crissy Field 5k.

9am. All paces welcome. Coffee after.

Builders only. RSVP in bio.

[luba yudasina @LubaYudasina]

If you're the one communicating and the person on the other end doesn't understand you, that's your fault.

Julian Weisser (@julianweisser), who ran 27 founder cohorts at ODF (@joinodf) and now hosts his own founder interviews, says he never reviews conversations after the fact, even though transcription and video make that possible now.

He credits Richard Feynman's idea that if you truly understand something, you can explain it to anyone from a four-year-old to an eighty-four-year-old.

"You can tell by somebody's facial expression: do they get it, do they not get it."

Full episode:https://t.co/BLdqId4da2

[luba yudasina @LubaYudasina]

New pod drop! Full circle - I met Julian (@julianweisser) almost 10 years ago in ODF 1 (~100 people, in person in SF). They’re on cohort 27 now, wild!

He also recently launched Solo Founders (@solofounders) - we love to see it!

We cover:

- From Jazz to startups: let people play their own instruments

- Giving early employees high equity

- Co-founders aren’t forever — they have seasons

- “If they don’t get it, that’s your fault”

- Music school → On Deck → Solo Founders

- Biggest risk isn’t dilution. It’s co-founder conflict

- Life philosophy: keep going

so much more!

Timestamps

(00:00) Trailer
(00:51) Julian Weisser, Founder, Solo Founders
(02:06) Calling his old jazz taste "musical masturbation"
(20:17) 27 cohorts, thousands of founders, more reps than any VC
(35:50) The $400K co-founder payout demand
(39:45) The Hacker News post that led to Dropbox's first employee
(44:45) Golden Gate Park was built from sand dunes
(54:50) Why co-founders have seasons, not forever contracts
(58:53) The "oddballs" who never wanted co-founders, including Loyal's Celine Halioua
(1:00:59) Co-founders are the car phone. Solo founders are the cell phone.
(1:06:47) Why owning less equity can mean more freedom
(1:16:18) His two-word life philosophy: keep going
(1:16:34) Outro

Link - https://t.co/8B6BrMk4gV

[weisser @julianweisser]

Have been looking forward to this one: Dave Morin on the Solo Founders Podcast.

@davemorin was early at Facebook where he worked closely with Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook's developer platforms.

Now he’s working with some of the top solo founders at Offline Ventures like Ben from Polsia and also chairs the OpenClaw foundation.

07:58 YouTube can be your co-founder
08:57 "I'm a producer, not an investor"
16:19 What Jony Ive told him when Steve Jobs died
18:50 The first twelve hours with @openclaw
34:15 "Am I crazy?" three months before @polsia
45:48 The 10,000-dinners test
53:32 The worst way solo founders fail
55:18 Just start

[weisser @julianweisser]

Five solo founders called in to work through what they're stuck on.

One had over 1M+ users and it was time to figure out monetization while preserving the community spirit.

Solo Founders Podcast ep 27 is live: Open Office Hours.

01:04 Utkarsh Dalal - 1.25M users, a few hundred paying
05:44 "User trust doesn't matter if you don't exist"
08:30 Ryan Junejo - one week into being solo
21:31 Don't be the best. Be the only.
24:13 Charlie Kahn - the features they ask for vs. the brain they don't
28:28 They're asking for jobs to be done
36:06 Andy Wang - a second pair of hands, or don't split your time?
39:37 Ship the mind before the body

[Solo Founders @solofounders]

Solo Founders Open Office Hours https://t.co/6ptIvd94Ct

[weisser @julianweisser]

The wrong co-founder leaves you 50% as good as you could be.

@FounderLaberge never had a co-founder.

Instead, he taught himself spectroscopy and raised $41.5M to put sensors inside Al data centers (at 20).

Solo Founders Podcast ep 25 is live with Zach Laberge of @TryOmenAI.

16:51 Shutting down his first company at 18
22:05 $3M raised in three days
26:11 Engines don't break - hydraulics do
33:51 "You're an idiot": six months early on data centers
37:55 Solo by default
45:13 The greatest fundraising market in history
52:58 The bear case for solo founding
59:05 Why no co-founder made him 10x better

[weisser @julianweisser]

application volume going vertical this time.

[Solo Founders @solofounders]

We're going live Thursday for 1:1s w/ 5 solo founders on whatever they're currently stuck on.

Apply to be one of the five or register to watch live: https://t.co/psM1d4QVAI