Lessons for founders from my time as a founder

Hraness, a former Stripe engineer who left in 2023 after over 8 years, announced he is stepping down as cofounder of Zo, an AI startup, after 3 years of founding ventures, citing burnout and a desire to return to his creative roots as a musician and indie hacker. He revealed that he spent $8,796 on Cursor AI in 1.5 months to build a 'software factory' aimed at creating 100 $10M companies as a path to a one-person $1B company. Reflecting on his journey, he shared three lessons for founders: cultivate superhuman speed, true sight, and self-transformation.

Exactly 3 years ago, I decided to become a founder. My personal motivation was not wealth, but personal transformation, during a time when living on the edge was clearly more interesting than staying still. I left a cushy managerial job at Stripe in 2023, where I’d worked for over 8 years. I was fortunate to build Terminal https://hraness.com/stripe/history/product-launches as the first engineer, and it continues to be one of my proudest achievements. When I started a company https://x.com/hraness/status/1803793173744845289?s=20 with perceptnet https://open.substack.com/users/885377-perceptnet?utm source=mentions , inference was all the rage, so we dreamed up a DAG-based platform. The idea was in the right ballpark, but only modestly successful after a year, so we shut it down and returned to the drawing board. We spent 6 months throwing spaghetti https://hraness.com/writing/a-home-for-the-mind at the wall, then started building Zo https://x.com/hraness/status/1963668897346830423?s=20 . The manic https://hraness.com/writing/coding-as-music excitement that emerges during that zero https://hraness.com/writing/computronium -to-one is truly the spice of life. I was drunk on Fable. Then I was drunk on Sol. I felt unstoppable. During the depths of my AI psychosis, I had moments of mania: 3 all-nighters one week, on top of repeated mornings waking up too early with a head full of prompts. In the fog of war I began to see how the way I worked over the last 3 years was unsustainable. I’ve always suffered from an overactive brain. I always feel like the end is in sight, just around the corner, and if I grind just one more time I’ll see the light. While I was reflecting on my burnout, an idea entered my head and I haven’t been able to ignore it. I realized I’ve been building tools to enable builders for 11 years. But in my heart of hearts, I’ve always been a musician, a creator, an artist, a bootstrapped indie hacker. I asked myself the hard question. When will I stop building the tools, and start building my own dream? I can feel it in my bones that we’ve reached a bright new frontier with model capability https://aicharts.io/ . Just as I felt ahead of the curve last year, spending way too much money on Cursor, I have this edge today that most builders don’t have yet. 1.5 months and $8,796 in @cursor ai spend later i have made it to our first release, friends & family beta dropping tomorrow I’ve started building a software factory. Good software with a non-zero market size is a store of value. If you have a good https://hraness.com/kb process https://hraness.com/direct for producing https://hra.sh/ good software cheaply and without much supervision, you should scale it up, produce a ton of good software, and figure out https://atet.sh/ distribution https://wrench.rip/ so you can harvest the value. One viable path to the one person $1B company is to create 100 $10M companies. Three lessons for founders As I close my chapter as Zo’s cofounder, I want to share three lessons, one for each of the past few years: 1. You must cultivate superhuman speed The first big lesson, acquired through pain, is that there’s a real insanity that is required to win. Real personal sacrifices must be made. A mad cranking of the OODA loop is required, iterating as fast as humanly possible. 2. You must cultivate true sight The second big lesson, acquired through fear, is that there is a certain boldness that comes only from true sight. Seeing clearly means seeing your weaknesses without stubbornness or pride. Seeing the world in harsh relief. Killing your darling beliefs and philosophies without preciousness. Putting yourself out there repeatedly without fear. Leaning into discomforts – in order to see them clearly, and outgrow them as fast as possible. 3. You must transform yourself I firmly believe most people are capable of much more than they know – they simply haven’t pushed themselves anywhere near the jagged frontier. Reality is malleable, and your self which defines your reality is the most malleable of all. That’s all for now. Until next time, Ben Guo | hraness.com https://hraness.com/ PS Here is a brief lyric excerpt from Grey Gardens by Casey MQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TgNKvB8H2A that feels especially poignant today: Remembering is not opposite of forgetting It's like the lining