🎧 Startup Growth Podcast, Ep. 34 Julian Weisser | The Solo Flippening: How 1-in-3 Startups Broke the Co-Founder Myth

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The script has been the same for decades: find a co-founder

Investors demanded it.
Accelerators screened for it.

The narrative became so entrenched that founders started pairing up out of obligation, not alignment.

Julian Weisser, founder of SOLO and ODF, has a name for this phenomenon: co-founders of convenience

And he's proving they're not just unnecessary-they're often the reason companies fail.

This week, Julian released 'The State of Solo Founding' report: "Today, solo founding is considered odd. Soon it will be the default. This report features exclusive Carta data alongside commentary from solo founders who have raised over $250M and the investors who backed them."

The comprehensive report tracks solo founder rates across thousands of startups, the headline finding is historic: for the first time, over one-third of new startups are solo-founded (That's 36% in 2025, up from under 25% in 2019)

Download the report here: https://solofounders.com/report

Chapters:

(00:44) Why the report matters now
(02:17) The data: 24% → 36%, first year over 1-in-3
(04:32) 3 forces: AI, visible wins, collapsing narrative
(06:00) Investor POV
(07:30) Org design insight: cutting the middle layer
(09:47) Download report: http://solofounders.com/report
(11:01) ODF26: half the cohort flipped to solo
(12:33) Inside SOLO
(14:30) Why coworking doesn't work for startups
(16:37) Outcomes: $1M ARR in 2 months & more
(17:19) Follow @solofounding & @joinodf

Where to find Julian Weisser:‍
X: https://x.com/julianweisser
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julianweisser
Website: https://weisser.io‍

Where to find SOLO: ‍
X: https://x.com/solofounding
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/solo-founders
Website: https://solofounders.com

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👉 Apply to the Solo Founders Program today. A three-month, in-person residency for 6 ambitious solo founders. Next cohort starts Jan. 23, 2026: solofounders.com/program

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Where to find ODF:‍
X: https://x.com/joinodf
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/solo-founders
Website: https://joinodf.com‍

Newsletters: ‍
Texts with Founders: https://textswithfounders.com
Multitudes: https://multitudes.weisser.io‍

Where to find David Phillips:
X: https://x.com/davj
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davjphillips‍

Brought to you by:‍ Fondo — All-in-one accounting for startups @ fondo.com