Blake Hudelson

65% of startups fail because co-founders can't get along. Well, we’re happy to consider ourselves in the 35% of those that do. I never planned to interview my own co-founder on this show. But here we are!!! Here's the backstory: @BlakeHudelson and I met at Atomic, a startup studio in San Francisco. A mutual contact introduced us and something clicked. So I did what any totally reasonable person would do… I suggested we work on 3 *companies at the same time* to see what sticks. Blake said yes. Which tells you everything about him. That was six years and roughly a thousand late-night calls ago. We've been through near-death moments, leadership changes that hurt, a Covid basement where I may or may not have screamed into a wall, and more pivots than either of us likes to count. We finally landed on @BoomPopHQ's direction in 2023 and haven't looked back. This episode gets real and raw on our co-founder dynamic and some lessons we’ve learned that hopefully you can apply to your own co-founder relationships (or really ANY relationship, professional or otherwise). Blake tells you exactly what drives him crazy about me (including a habit of mine he's named the "super poop"). I'll admit what I should have done differently. And we share the stuff we genuinely wish someone had told us in year one. What we get into: - The one exercise every co-founding pair should do in their first 30 days - Why our most important pivotal moments have always come from our disagreements - What we learned from hiding problems from our team (spoiler: don't) - The difference between a co-founder who complements you vs. one who mirrors you - How radical transparency became the most powerful thing we ever did for our culture New episode of Don't Be a Jerk with my co-founder Blake Hudelson is live now everywhere you get your podcasts!!!

When one thing becomes abundant and cheap, another thing becomes scarce and valuable.

Running a company: 2020: can you survive a pandemic? 2021: still here? we’re going to give all of your competitors $100m series A rounds. 2022: wow, you made it? okay, all engineers cost $600,000/year now. 2023: nice job! okay, SVB failed and we’re going to take away your bank account. 2024: a survivor I see. but can you pivot from ai to crypto to defense tech back to ai-enabled defense tech in a 12 month period to stay relevant? 2025: unfortunately all of your competitors have raised $2b series B rounds. oh and only 500 engineers are relevant and they cost $100m/yr each. 2026: well, well, well. you’re still in business? let’s deploy the thunderclap of godlike LLMs from the heavens so all of your customers can rebuild your app in 2 hours. can you survive?

@itsjuliaknight @BoomPopHQ 👏👏👏

the first time i saw this new product, i told @BlakeHudelson that @BoomPopHQ is an entirely different company which is crazy since they were already named the 7th fastest-growing software company on the 2025 Inc. 5000 list insane what they built with AI…..massive proud that Knight Vision gets to partner with the BoomPop team as they scale the leading Al company in the events industry!!! LFG

@BoomPopHQ @Navan Watching this come together behind the scenes has been pretty incredible. Excited for what’s ahead!

Hot take: The problem with corporate events isn’t the budget. It’s the planning process. Too many tabs, too many emails, too much chaos. We built something that makes the whole thing feel...sane. So sane that @Navan chose us to power their meetings and events platform ↴

@Scott_Wiener You don’t speak for SF. This city needs all the help it can get.

Trump is so demented & his brain disease so severe that he may actually believe San Franciscans want him to send his personal army & secret police here. Just to clarify: GO AWAY. WE DON’T WANT YOU HERE. BACK OFF.

@Scott_Wiener Long time San Franciscan here 👋 SF residents don’t want your crime promoting socialist policies here. We want safe clean streets. We obviously need help from the federal government, and we should be welcoming their support with open arms.

San Franciscan here 🙋🏻 We don’t want you here. We don’t want your invading army or ski mask secret police. And while we’re add it, keep San Francisco out of your damn mouth.

@buckshotio Your hustle is going to take you far Buck. Don’t let up 👊

The day I quit BlackRock I got a job handing out flyers for $15/hr. Within 30 days I was making $100+ / hr. Here's how I did it...

@MoFromYYZ @Airbnb Love that space

My previous second home @Airbnb

I met Sam last Fall and he told me about this new founder community he was building. I decided to give it a shot and so far have been floored by the quality of folks in this group. Big shout out to @thesamparr and @jspeiser for officially launching Hampton today!

@the_mo_el @rak_garg @lmushin @the_mo_el you going? We should combine poker night forces 😁

@rak_garg @lmushin @BlakeHudelson

Hosting a little poker night with @lmushin in SF next Wednesday and have a couple of open spots. LMK if you're around and want to come!

This looks exactly like running a startup

@SFMTA_Muni @SlowLakeStreet Thank you @SFMTA_Muni! Appreciate the action and communication 🙏

🧵 We appreciate the many people who took the time to share their feedback about Lake Street. We are currently placing Slow Streets sign posts in three places on the street at one or two intersections along Lake Street (depending on how much work can be completed before dark).

Lots of discussion of pandemic growth having been "pull forward" vs "new trendline". However, one place where latter story seems true is entrepreneurship: Stripe @Atlas incorporations were +90% Y/Y in Nov 2020, roughly flat in 2021, and now up *another* +54% Y/Y in Nov 2022.

@SFMTA_Muni @MaloneRuth @SlowLakeStreet @LondonBreed @SFMTA_Muni eagerly awaiting permanent solutions to slow down traffic. There are a ton of speeding cars on Lake street since the barriers have been removed. It’s currently not safe for pedestrians, bikers, kids who use slow lake street.

@MaloneRuth @SlowLakeStreet @LondonBreed We appreciate yours (and everyone's!) feedback about Lake St. and the Slow Streets program as a whole. The SFMTA staff will be implementing the board’s decision to affirm Lake Street as a long-term Slow Street starting in the next few days.

Bring your team closer together in Miami with Everglades adventures, graffiti inspiration, and the best local meals. 🏝 An offsite package perfect for teams that are feeling creatively blocked or need a change of scenery.

So proud of this team 🎉 Thanks @TechCrunch for sharing our story: techcrunch.com/2022/11/16/boo…

@asianxjay Thanks brother! Super grateful for your support over all these years 🙏

Next level drone flying skills 👌 youtube.com/watch?v=YYkBSy…

@mmahalwy @LM_Braswell No question the best dealer/founder in the game 😁

@LM_Braswell Happy to be the dealer for the next one! @BlakeHudelson can vouch 🙂

Best (& most fun) startup recruiting strategy