Paul Klein IV applied to 500 internships and got rejected from 498. Now he's the solo founder of Browserbase – a headless browser infrastructure company for AI agents – valued at $300M in under 14 months. He didn't choose to be a solo founder. He tried to find a co-founder and couldn't. In this conversation, he explains why that turned out to be the right thing.

Topics covered:

Why Paul thinks first-time founders should not be solo founders
The five-tool founder concept: product, sales, fundraising, hiring, and operations
StreamClub founding story and lessons from having co-founders
How a 3,000-word memo validated the Browserbase idea
Solo founder by circumstance: trying and failing to find a co-founder
Hiring philosophy: contractors as work trials, DM recruiting on Twitter
Fundraising as relationship building, not a tight process
Company culture: emotional vulnerability, second chances, non-traditional backgrounds
The quarterback to head coach to GM evolution of a solo founder CEO
Operating cadence: daily standups, weekly syncs, monthly all-hands, quarterly board meetings
Brand building through word of mouth
The honest case for and against solo founding

Guest: Paul Klein IV, Solo founder and CEO of Browserbase. Former CTO/co-founder of StreamClub (acquired by Mux). Former software engineer at Twilio.

Apply to Solo Founders Program: https://solofounders.com/program

From 498 Rejections to a $300M Company | Paul Klein IV (Browserbase)