Julian Weisser

He recalled growing up in a Connecticut town with teacher parents, taking improv in middle school, and moving to Boston for music school, where he worked with Jazz Revelation Records. His Open Atlas biography identifies his studies as music and management at Berklee College of Music.⁠[3][4]

A Berklee article identified Weisser and Kylie Rothfield as organizers of student fundraising efforts following Japan’s earthquake and tsunami. Their projects were distinct; the benefit concert called Stand with Japan was organized by Rothfield.⁠[5]

In January 2013, Weisser wrote for Hypebot as co-founder of Bundio, a direct-to-fan subscription platform. He argued that Spotify and YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry made discovery easier, while artists needed deeper relationships with dedicated fans willing to pay for exclusive material and live experiences.⁠[6]

He later recalled building Bundio around Dropbox to present artists’ files through a fan portal; a quiet Hacker News launch nevertheless connected him with an early Dropbox employee.⁠[3]

Before his work at On Deck, he co-founded the health-technology venture Within Health and worked as a growth manager at Virta Health.⁠[4]

In 2019, Weisser helped launch On Deck Founder Fellowship, bringing prospective founders together to explore ideas, meet collaborators and support one another in getting started.⁠[4][7]

When the pandemic interrupted the third in-person cohort in March 2020, Weisser redirected another product team toward member directories, content and community tools. He told Almanac that the aim was a lasting online experience; remote delivery also opened participation beyond the United States.⁠[7]

In 2022, On Deck reduced staffing and narrowed its scope.⁠[8]

The Deep End introduced him in September 2022 as an On Deck co-founder, partner in its Founders and Angels programs, and investor at Other Ventures. Its contemporary profile credited him with backing more than 100 companies across areas including asteroid mining and animal longevity.⁠[9]

In Founders and Momentum, he argued for progress in demand, usage or sales before expecting it to help fundraising and hiring. He described founders whose waitlist and hands-on customer work attracted investment interest, and cautioned against confusing administrative activity with business progress.⁠[10]

In August 2023, he described the first ten Texts with Founders posts, covering investor updates, financing terms, hiring timing and customer validation. He presented the publication as a way to make practical founder guidance accessible beyond particular locations or networks.⁠[11]

In Preconditions for Starting, he distinguished genuine capital needs from waiting for investor approval. A founder may be unable to forgo a salary indefinitely, but making funding or accelerator admission a prerequisite can delay customer validation. He favored early customer conversations and, where feasible, a minimal product.⁠[12]

Weisser launched Solo Founders Program in 2025. Its manifesto presents solo founding as a viable path expanded by AI, while acknowledging loneliness and the burden of lacking a co-founder. It does not argue that every company should be started by one person.⁠[13][14]

He contributed the foreword and field notes to The State of Solo Founding, comparing Carta companies on fundraising, dilution, hiring and exits. The report found a rising solo-founder share but cautioned that larger personal ownership need not produce better exit proceeds. Its sample is not a census of all new businesses worldwide.⁠[15]

His year-end review emphasized peer feedback, emotional support and eventual teams. He advocated validating direction through real customer work, sharing meaningful equity with early employees, and expanding staffing as needed. These were his practical judgments.⁠[13]

On March 3, 2026, he announced that the Solo Founders Podcast would launch the next day, featuring extended conversations with founders and investors about products, customers and operating decisions. The official site subsequently listed continuing episodes under the Solo Founders brand.⁠[16][17]

In his interview with Luba Yudasina, he compared management to individualized teaching and placed responsibility for clear communication on the speaker.⁠[3]

On October 9, he wrote that Solo Founders Program used no side letters or pro-rata rights and was not then making follow-on investments. He preferred future opportunities to result from support earned with founders; this described the program’s stated practice at that time.⁠[18]

As of October 2026, Solo Founders Program described three months in San Francisco with weekly individual sessions with Weisser. Its terms listed a $100,000 uncapped MFN SAFE plus 2.5% equity participation. ODF described a one-week in-person onboarding experience and continuing community without taking equity.⁠[2][19]

Berklee College of Music: Official website: https://college.berklee.edu/ (opens in a new window).⁠[20]

Virta Health: Official website: https://www.virtahealth.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[21]

On Deck: Official website: https://main.joinodf.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[19]

Solo Founders: Official website: https://solofounders.com/program (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

Julian Weisser: Personal website: https://www.weisser.io/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]

X: Public account: https://x.com/julianweisser (opens in a new window).⁠[1]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julianweisser (opens in a new window).⁠[22]

Solo Founders: YouTube: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjYyjOmnZp67BLDoe7nJkDA (opens in a new window).⁠[15]