How HF0’s Dave Fontenot Helps Founders Birth Their Life’s Work (Just Go Grind, Episode #357)

Episode 357: Justin Gordon interviews Dave Fontenot, Founder of HF0, the residency for repeat founders. At HF0, 10 teams live in a 20,000-square-foot mansion in San Francisco for 12 weeks to build their life's work. During the residency, everything is taken care of for them, healthy meals are provided daily, and founders can focus solely on building their company. The quality of these founders is awe-inspiring, with many teams reaching $2M-$3M in ARR by demo day. 

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This episode is brought to you by Rho. With Rho, founders get:

• A single pane of glass they can use to run and scale their business from Day 1: Bank account, corporate cards to start running – and expense management, bill pay automation, and accounting to help you move fast as you scale.
• Rho is trusted by thousands of companies ranging from two-person YC companies to brands like Perplexity, Cal.com, Splitwise and more.
• The big thing with Rho: Every customer has a "person" at Rho. 24/7 customer support - phone, text, email - we will be there at every critical milestone in your startup's journey.

To learn why startups choose Rho, visit www.rho.co today.

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Show Notes:

00:00 What’s coming in the episode…

1:22 Introduction

2:49 What is HF0?

6:00 Dave’s background

9:57 Dave’s vision

15:12 Early days of HF0

19:35 From MHacks to HF0

24:53 First ever concept of HF0

27:46 Second batch

32:58 Dave’s take on inner work

37:23 From New York to San Francisco

40:05 Funding HF0

48:29 Putting the teams together

1:05:40 The success of HF0

1:10:23 On the lookout for a GP

1:11:57 Dave’s hypothesis on why HF0 worked

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