Episode Details

Today we're launching Solo Grants: $100–$1,000 grants, 100% no strings attached, for people building technically ambitious projects solo. Julian sits down with Ari Dutilh who leads the program and is a former grantee himself, to map the wide world of microgrants and explain why the gap between a project seen through and one abandoned is usually just a few hundred dollars.

Topics covered:

• The Solo Grants launch: $100 to $1,000, no equity, no payback, and it doesn't have to be a business
• Microgrants 101: 1517's $1,000 checks, Emergent Ventures, and the Thiel Fellowship lineage
• The grantee who asked for $100 less than his application, and the three viruses he went on to discover and name
• Why first-time builders never even look for co-founders
• Ari's path from a $500 high school grant to running the program
• The funder who said "be more ambitious" and gave more than he asked for
• How to apply, and the directory that routes you to the right grant program

Guest: Ari Dutilh — running Solo Grants (formerly Merge) and producer of the Solo Founders Podcast.

Apply for a Solo Grant: https://sologrants.com