Podcast Summary: How I Invest with David Weisburd

Episode E236: How the Top 0.1% Founders Build AI Companies

Date: November 5, 2025
Guest: Dave (HF0)
Host: David Weisburd

Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into how the most elite founders are building breakaway AI companies today. Dave, founder of HF0 — a residency-based startup accelerator — shares insights into a radically focused approach to company building. The conversation unpacks the psychology, tactical practices, and mindset shifts required for next-level startup success in the hyper-competitive AI landscape. The importance of “subtraction”—removing everything but the most crucial work—is explored, alongside the rise of company-building residencies and the compounding power of uninterrupted flow state.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The HF0 Model: Residency for Startups

• Why a New Way to Build?

  • The advent of AI has drastically intensified startup competition. To win, founders must operate at unprecedented standards of focus and sacrifice.
    • “With AI, the competition has just intensified so much … what you need to be willing to do, what you need to be willing to sacrifice as a founder to win is just—the bar is way high.” (Dave, 00:07)
  • HF0 is inspired by legendary “hacker house” approaches (e.g., early Facebook, Devin/Cognition’s house) but productizes this method for broader reach.

• Batch Structure & Founder Quality

  • HF0 only accepts 10 teams per batch. Many are experienced, repeat founders, sometimes joining already with significant ARR or major funding secured.
    • “One team walked in on day one of the batch with $7mil ARR already coming in. Another team walked in … already had a term sheet for $10 and $100 for their Series A.” (Dave, 01:05)

2. The Principle of Subtraction Over Addition

• Residency Format and Deep Focus

  • HF0 operates as a live-in residency; removing life’s distractions, even the non-obvious ones, is the core value.
    • “I wouldn’t even call it addition through subtraction. I’ll just call it subtraction. So pretty much in HF0, it’s a residency, so you actually move in…” (Dave, 02:30)
  • The most insidious distraction isn’t obvious busywork—it’s the second most important thing in your business, drawing energy from the highest-leverage problem.

• Recursive Self-Inquiry

  • Through witnessing founders’ workflows, HF0 helps them eliminate even high ROI tasks (if they’re not #1 priority), freeing attention for breakthroughs.
  • “The most insidious distraction isn’t … a conference or networking … It’s actually the second most important thing in your business.” (Dave, 02:50)

3. Compounding Return of Flow

• Interruptions as Growth Killers

  • Even tiny interruptions (ordering food, context switching) can destroy momentum; HF0 aims to reduce interruptions from 3–5 per day to zero or one.
    • “Any context switching … even having to think about what you’re going to go eat can interrupt this compounding return of your flow state.” (Dave, 05:53)
  • Eliminating context switches—especially switching to tasks that are “important but not most important”—unleashes exponential productivity.

• Breakthrough Example

  • A team entered with $500K ARR, focused on their true lever, and hit $20M ARR 12 weeks later.
    • “We had a team … came in at like $500K annualized revenue. They ended up figuring out this most important thing … broke $20M annualized by demo day, 12 weeks later.” (Dave, 08:36)

4. The Deep Psychology of Avoidance

• Avoiding the “Number One” Problem

  • Even top founders often subconsciously avoid their business’s #1 issue due to fear, discomfort, or ambiguity—preferring to work on #2–#10 instead.
    • “Even the most productive humans have to do that … it’s such a human thing that even the most productive humans have to do that.” (Interviewer, 09:38)
  • Psychological safety is a factor, but with abundant AI capital, the real bottleneck is breakthroughs (not money).

• Sam Altman Case Study

  • Altman focuses all attention on the single most essential problem (e.g., securing more compute for OpenAI), delegating even mission-critical but second-level issues.

    “All of my time is spent finding more compute.” (Sam Altman case, summary via Dave, 12:05)

5. Measuring and Maximizing "Rate of Realizations"

• Execution Speed Is Now Unbounded
  • With AI, once you realize the right strategic move, you can execute almost instantly, compounding a founder’s effectiveness.
    • “It’s really only bounded by your rate of realizations because then if you’re effective at leveraging AI, you can almost have the AI grind on your behalf…” (Dave, 04:03)

6. The Power (and Spirituality) of Flow

• Flow as a Life’s Work Catalyst

  • The best technical talent seeks deep, prolonged flow; in this state, they can achieve in two weeks what could take others a year.
    • “We’ve seen founders, in two weeks, build the system that they thought was going to take them six months or a year+… And these are already the best engineers in the world.” (Dave, 20:39)

• Memorable Analogy:

  • Flow described as surfing a rare, never-ending wave, or “the Holy Spirit flowing through their fingertips into code.”
    • “The best hackers are chasing that almost wave of connection to their flow.” (Dave, 25:50)

7. Practical Advice for "HF0 Light"

• How to Apply Principles Without Residency

  • Set up your life/work so you have as few interruptions as possible—ideally, workspace, food, and facilities in one place—minimizing any need to switch modes or tasks.

    • “What I would do is … find a workspace in the same building as my apartment. I’d try to find one … with a Chipotle and a Starbucks downstairs … and just get food/coffee without losing context.” (Dave, 33:20)

  • Have a friend or partner audit your day to identify and help eliminate even the smallest interruptions.

• Importance of the "Container"
  • A defined, time-bound “container” (period set aside for heads-down focus) is key; it’s this structure that enables deep work and progress.

8. The Coming Residency Wave & Future of Startups

• Residencies Will Transform Early-Stage Venture

  • Dave predicts that residency formats for company building could “eat 40% of all early stage,” because founders need support structures, not just cash, to reach escape velocity.

  • Even founders with families are joining; demand is so high that most teams want longer than 12 weeks.

9. Trust, Empathy & “Products with Soul”

• Sticky AI Tools
  • Deep user empathy, trust, and “entrenched” daily use make the best AI companies—products that feel like extensions of oneself.
    • “Some of these, you know, ChatGPT for a lot of people has become almost like an extension of their brain.” (Dave, 29:30)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The most insidious distraction is the second most important thing in your business.” (Dave, 02:50)
• “Any context switching … even having to think about what you’re going to go eat can interrupt this compounding return of your flow state.” (Dave, 05:53)
• “We had a team … came in at like $500K annualized revenue. They ended up figuring out this most important thing … broke $20M annualized by demo day, 12 weeks later.” (Dave, 08:36)
• “All of my time is spent finding more compute.” (Sam Altman case, summary via Dave, 12:05)
• “We’ve seen founders, in two weeks, build the system that they thought was going to take them six months or a year+… And these are already the best engineers in the world.” (Dave, 20:39)
• “Flow is … where people birth— that is where I believe people birth their life’s work from.” (Dave, 25:57)
• “If you have a competitor that’s neck and neck … get them to hire somebody that will tap their top engineer on the shoulder four times a day—the end.” (Interviewer, 40:57)
• “…this way of company building is superior. This is the way that I think pretty much everyone in 20 years will be building companies.” (Dave, 41:47)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:07 — The need for new company-building models in AI
• 01:05 — Quality and profile of HF0’s 11th batch of founders
• 02:30 — The principle of subtraction (not addition)
• 05:21 — Interruptions, context switching, and optimizing flow
• 10:36 — Intrinsic motivation, pressure, and founder psychology
• 12:05 — The Sam Altman “compute” focus case study
• 20:39 — What is ‘the compound return of flow state’ in practice
• 25:57 — Flow analogies: jazz, surfing, the “Holy Spirit”
• 33:01 — Practical steps for implementing “HF0 Light”
• 40:57 — The “woman in the red dress” and laying competitive traps via interruption
• 41:47 — Residency company-building as the future of startups

Final Thoughts & Contact

Dave concludes that HF0’s approach—relentless focus on the highest-leverage task, enabled by radical subtraction in a defined, distraction-free environment—is not just a powerful accelerator for startups but may become the new standard for company building in an AI-dominated era.

For investors or founders interested in HF0:

• Contact: dave@hf0.com
• Most teams have raised a Seed or Series A; HF0 offers a unique, equity-efficient growth path.

For maximum flow and compounding returns—commit to the residency model or “audit” your life to subtract distractions, focus on the #1 thing, and ensure deep, uninterrupted work. For AI startups, this may now be the difference between winning and being left behind.