First Builders Sober, Solo, and Scaling: Koby Conrad on Building Sunflower from the Ground Up
What happens when a high-growth operator turns founder—and builds a company rooted in personal mission? Koby Conrad, solo founder and CEO of Sunflower, joins First Builders to share his journey from Rupa Health’s go-to-market lead to creating a digital recovery platform for the 1.2 billion people affected by addiction.
A former zero-to-one standout at Rupa Health, Koby helped scale the company from a $22M valuation to a life-changing acquisition. Now he’s bringing those lessons—and his own seven years of sobriety—into building Sunflower, a mobile-first addiction recovery app grounded in emotional resonance, habit loops, and community design.
In this episode, Koby unpacks:
– The early signals he trusted to launch Sunflower
– What he learned about growth, management, and mindset at Rupa
– How he raised capital pre-launch and built in public
– Why being a solo, non-technical founder didn’t stop him
It’s a story about identity, scale, sobriety—and how the best builders are the ones who stay close to the problem.
Follow Koby Conrad
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kobychaseconrad
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kobychase
Company: https://www.joinsunflower.com
Book: https://channelsofgrowth.com
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Show Notes
Koby’s path from Rupa Health to solo founder of Sunflower
Lessons on startup growth, hiring, and building high-slope teams
Inside Sunflower: AI-powered habit tracking, CBT prompts, and community-driven recovery
Vulnerability and leadership: staying grounded while scaling
Book Mentioned: The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
Koby’s book: Channels of Growth