Ben Cera was our very first guest, back when Polsia had just crossed $1.5M in annualized revenue. About seven months later, Polsia had passed a $20M run rate. Now he's back, live on stage with Julian at the Outliers Summit in New York, still the only founder of a company that raised $30M at a $250M valuation. Ben explains why he regrets bringing on co-founders just to raise money, why the technical co-founder is now AI, and why you should try solo before you go looking for one.
Topics covered:
- Building a startup as art
- What a one-person company looks like at this scale
- Raising on a deck with two co-founders who debated instead of decided
- Why not deciding is worse than a wrong decision
- Why Polsia is "AI Slop" spelled backwards
- Agents as digital humans with a personality
- True solo, free solo and juiced solo
- Who Polsia's customers really are, and why every setup step loses people
- Founders as creative directors
- "Aren't you lonely?" and the case for solo founding
Guest: Ben Cera, founder of Polsia, the AI that builds and runs companies.
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What is Solo Founders?
The Solo Founder's Podcast features in-depth interviews with solo founders building remarkable companies. Each week, host Julian Weisser sits down with solo founders who are either operating at serious scale or doing something right now that you need to know about. From Series B and beyond to founders breaking out in real-time, these are the conversations that define what it means to build solo. New episodes every week.