E236: How the Top 0.1% Founders Build AI Companies

Nov 5, 2025

In this discussion, Dave Fontenot, the Founder and CEO of HF0, shares insights on revolutionizing startup acceleration for AI companies. He explains how founders can achieve two years’ progress in just 12 weeks by eliminating distractions through a residency model. They dive into the importance of deep flow for productivity and why avoiding the hardest problems is a common challenge among even elite founders. Dave also highlights how AI changes the startup landscape and how creating soulful products relies on empathy and trust.

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INSIGHT

Residency Is The New Competitive Edge

HF0 productizes a historic way of intense company building by creating residency homes for founders.
Dave Fontenot says residencies are likely what winning startups will need as AI competition intensifies.

ANECDOTE

High-Quality Teams Enter HF0

HF0 runs 10 teams per batch and attracts repeat founders and companies with real revenue.
Dave describes teams entering with millions in ARR and term sheets, showing high selection quality.

INSIGHT

Recursive Subtraction Drives Breakthroughs

HF0 focuses on recursive subtraction to force founders to find the single highest-leverage problem.
Removing even the second-most-important task increases the rate of breakthrough realizations.

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Can founders 10x their progress in 12 weeks? In this episode, I speak with Dave Fontenot, Founder of HF0, a groundbreaking startup residency that’s redefining how AI companies are built. HF0’s model—part hacker house, part monastic focus—is based on the idea that startups grow fastest when founders eliminate every distraction and operate in uninterrupted flow. Dave explains how the residency model is helping founders make “two years of progress in 12 weeks,” why the most dangerous distraction is the second most important thing in your business, and how recursive subtraction leads to breakthrough realizations. We discuss what true flow looks like, how competition in AI has changed company-building forever, and why the next generation of founders will work like athletes in training camp.

Highlights:

How HF0 redefined startup acceleration by replacing addition with subtraction
Why the most insidious distraction for founders is the second most important thing in their business
How residency-based company building leads to “a year or two of progress in 12 weeks”
The psychology behind avoidance—and why even elite founders escape the hardest problems
How AI changes the calculus of startup speed by compressing iteration cycles
Why “flow compounds” and how context continuity multiplies productivity
The secret to building software 10x faster: protect the compound return of uninterrupted work
Why empathy and trust—not specs—create products with soul
How HF0’s model is spreading globally, spawning a new generation of residencies
Practical ways to create “HF0 Lite” in your own life—down to ordering routines and workspace design

Guest Bio:

Dave Fontenot is the Founder and CEO of HF0, a residency program designed for exceptional founders building the next generation of AI and software companies. At HF0, he helps entrepreneurs compress years of progress into months by creating an environment of deep focus, trust, and accountability.

Before HF0, Dave co-founded Backend Capital, an early-stage venture fund backing developers and technical founders, and was one of the key builders behind MHacks, one of the largest collegiate hackathons in the United States.

He began his career as a software engineer and community builder, working with some of the world’s most ambitious early-stage founders. Dave’s work sits at the intersection of engineering, psychology, and company building—and he’s become one of the leading voices shaping how high-performing startup teams operate in the AI era.

Our Podcast now receives more than 300,000 downloads a month. Are you interested in sponsoring an episode? Please email David Weisburd at david@weisburdcapital.com.

#VentureCapital #VC #Startups #OpenLP #AssetManagement

Stay Connected:

X / Twitter: David Weisburd: @dweisburd

LinkedIn: David Weisburd: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dweisburd/ Dave Fontenot: linkedin.com/in/davefont

Links HF0: https://www.hf0.com/

Questions or topics you want us to discuss on How I Invest? Email us at david@weisburdcapital.com.

(0:00) Introduction (0:32) Historical examples of residency formats in company building (1:01) Overview of the eleventh batch at HF0 (2:21) The principle of subtraction in HF0 (4:01) Role of AI in increasing the rate of realizations (5:21) Practical examples of subtraction in maintaining flow state (7:06) Focusing on the most important business lever (9:01) Success stories and collaboration with investors at HF Zero (12:37) Psychological aspects of task avoidance (17:26) Adaptability of AI-driven startups (18:50) Infinite potential for AI innovation (20:27) The compound return of flow state on productivity (24:02) Flow state comparison to jazz and surfing (27:21) Continuous context in software development (29:07) Identifying valuable AI products (31:09) Building trust and empathy with AI tool users (31:48) Implementing HF0 principles in daily life (34:07) The rise of residencies in early-stage venture (36:03) Auditing interruptions to maintain flow (38:49) Focusing on high-impact tasks (40:13) Competitive nature of AI and residency programs (41:40) Superior company building through residencies (42:43) Practical steps for focus and productivity (43:51) CEO's role in problem-solving (44:21) Closing remarks