Farza 🇵🇰🇺🇸
@FarzaTV
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shipping stuff. figuring it out :). i used to work on @_buildspace.
Joined July 2011
i started building stuff at 13. first $100k rev at 15. first 1m users at 19. first big boy company at 24. walked away from it all at 28. now im 29. how im starting from zero (again):
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introducing freewrite. a mac app i made for myself. one simple, clean place to write without distraction. all in native swift. no subscription. all local. free. enjoy.
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I have some tough news. Today, @_buildspace is closing. I wanna be real about everything. It’s not because of investor pressure, runway, internal drama, monetization, or any of those reasons. The actual reason is a bit more personal. I wrote a letter about it below. I know.
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Today I built a special hat 🤠. It has a motor + propeller on it that spins faster the harder I focus!. The motor's power is connected to my Raspberry Pi which is running a Node server I wrote that's actively capturing my brainwaves over WiFi via a @neurosity. Check it out ✨
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hi. i'm assembling the dream team. 4 people. 3 months in san francisco. i will fly you out + get you an apartment. plus, $10k a month base. if in 3-mo we don't make magic — then the team will auto self-destruct. like team rocket from pokemon. what are we working on:. maybe.
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Figma is wild 🤯. We put 300+ people in the same file, at the same time. Each cursor you see is a Nights & Weekends builder working on nailing the headline + one-liner for the project they're shipping.
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hey everyone!. been a while. 6-months actually. i took a one-way flight out of sf with no plan. didn't know if i'd ever even come back. ended up spending time in some of the most peaceful places on the entire planet. from the villages of morocco to the remote forests of the.
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Big news. We've raised $10m led by a16z to build Hogwarts for the builders and dreamers. It's a school for those who don't want to just "get a job" -- who want to instead pursue an alternative path. We're profitable + have 125,000+ users. Let's go 😈.
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Today, we're opening our first @_buildspace campus. A physical school for you to go all-in on your ideas. No matter how big, or how small.
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I've now seen over 25,000+ Javascript/web devs jump from web2 to web3. Many of them now have full-time careers at web3 companies, or are starting web3 companies/projects of their own!. Here's a thread on how to build your way into a crypto career 👇.
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We're building something new in SF. 😈. It'll be a 4,000 square foot space for people to build whatever tf they want -- music, software, film, games, whatever. Lease signed + construction underway. Very early, janky sneak peak:
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A lot of ppl ask me about how @a16z ended up investing in us. So I wanna share it for the first time. Here's the story of a kid who had no idea what the hell he was doing. Few things:. 1) I'm a solo founder. 2) I had never raised money before. 3) I had been building companies
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really amazing little book. full of emails and memos steve jobs directly sent his team. ex. in an email, his vp of software at apple said that he was burning out and that the apple may not be worth it. steve's reply:
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I'm hiring for 5 roles. All based in SF. $80K - $160K range. 0.25% - 1.0% equity. If you wanna work at an education company that doesn't really look like an education company -- read onwards 🧵
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introducing the nights & weekends fund. $100,000. 10 domains. $5,000 per grant. no equity. no contract. just straight money. but, one condition -- if you make it big, you pinky promise to buy us a jet ski. here are our first 5 domains:. 1. ai.2. music.3. film.4.
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~4-years ago, this company started as an education platform for kids ages 4-9. We had 200,000 students on it. But, struggled to monetize. In a moment of desperation, I decided to pivot -- it turned into @_buildspace. Now, nearly 2-years later. it's time for another change 🧵
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friend: yo dude, wanna drink?. me: nah man, that stuff kills brain cells. friend: you say its killing brain cells but i say its just real life dropout to prevent overfitting.
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The dream is to be Aamir Khan at the end of 3-Idiots. At the end, he's just inventing, flying drones, and building cool shit 24/7 at a school he built. But, he also secretly runs one of the biggest companies in the world under the pseudonym Phunsukh Wangdu hehehe.
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i wanna give a deep and heartfelt congratulations to everyone who finished this season of buildspace. making stuff is fkin hard. the emotional battle itself is insane. and, you made it through. im happy your journey began here. i hope we helped. keep going <3.
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I come from a Pakistani family. Unless your new initiative is a big success, you're a big flop. As a society, no matter where you're from -- we have a tendency to look at those that did something really hard, but didn't figure it out as a person who "failed". We put them under.
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The Rabbit R1, the Humane, all these AI wearables seem like great products, for the wrong initial market. Market is full of 28 year-old boomers too attached to their existing tech. I truly believe when we look at the next generation of device we carry -- we shouldn't be.
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Here's my YC application vid from 2019. This is the idea that got accepted!. Kinda crazy how the thing I'm talking about in this video pivoted into the wildly different thing we're working on today. Never get too attached to specific ideas. Keep iterating.
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I started this company at 23. Today, I turn 28. I have literally grown up with this thing. And for many of you reading this you've grown up alongside me watching me struggle, fail, figure it out, repeat. From moodgg to zipschool to buildspace -- ty for following along ❤️.
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I wrote this week about why I stopped playing League seriously and why I'll be picking up Super Smash Melee competitively in 2020. With Melee:.1. There is no team to blame. Just me. 2. The learning loop is fast (short matches).3. I can be creative af.
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Crazy to me when people don't pursue a good idea they had b/c "it already exists" when they Google it. Homie -- it doesn't matter. There is no such thing as a unique idea. It's your execution that's unique that causes your version of the idea to feel different from others.
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We're launching the "Web3 Starter Pack" next month. This would be sorta like the "Student Pack" Github has today which offers perks/free credits on tools like AWS, Twilio, Heroku, Stripe, etc. Which web3 cos should we include? Tag them!. Got 5 launch partners already ✨.
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We've done ~$200,000 in revenue so far this month. We'll be putting that money + a majority of future revenue into a public treasury that all @_buildspace NFT-holders will be able to govern. First vote happening in 3-4 weeks max.
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I added AI to my old CRT TV using a Raspberry Pi lol. It will take my webcam feed, send it to the Pi + CRT, and chronicle my life as if I'm a heroic character in a retro-style, epic movie. All while playing Hans Zimmer in the background baby.
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🚀 Launching something new today :). BuildSpace -- project-based course for developers that don't suck. Pick up new tech by joining live sessions led by awesome instructors + by actually writing code and shipping to prod.
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We passed 30,000 devs on @_buildspace today. Really happy we've been able to help onboard so many people into web3 this year. Everyone from my 12 year-old cousins in Pakistan to my YC friends in SF use buildspace now lol. 2022 is going to be awesome. 🥑
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You don't need to move to SF and attend random events every week. You don't need to join 10 different founder group chats. Most of it is noise. You just need to find 5 people who are making stuff, and talk to each other for 1-hour a week. That's it.
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Most people don't know this, but @_buildspace was the result of a pivot we did 6-months ago. Initially, we were working on ZipSchool for ~2 years -- a product for kids K-5. Here's my quick story on pivoting/ getting startup ideas 🧵.
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Today marks 1-year since we started this crazy thing called @_buildspace. 1-year later?. $2M yearly run-rate, 100K+ builders joining in to ship the future, and a team I adore working with. If we've helped you on your builder journey, drop a "happy birthday buildspace!" below ❤️.
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I've been bumping A.I Drake for a week. I wanna give:. 1) $10,000.2) a space in SF to work for 3-mo.2) a weekly chat w/ me. To whoever wants to build a Soundcloud-type experience full of A.I generated tracks w/ artists who opt-in. How I'd ship it in a week 🧵.
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bought a modded 5th gen ipod on ebay from 2006. has a modern battery + 30gb ssd. 10/10 for long, focused walks without a phone to think through new ideas or clear your head.
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Taking some time off. Decided to come out to MIT. Never been here but I like sitting in on random classes to get some new inspiration for whatever I'm working on -- you can just walk in lol. Just got out of differential equations. Architecture or nano technology next lfg.
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2-months ago, we started to reward users with NFT credentials as they completed projects. 2-months later, over 4,000 devs own at least one. Craziest part? Recruiters at legit web3 cos have begun to recognize our NFTs as proof-of-knowledge when they filter through candidates. 🤯.
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We usually stay away from the topic of raising money or finding investors -- we just wanna show you how to make stuff. Yet, every week I see a new @_buildspace alumni raise $50K - $500K. Yes. If you ship, tell the world, repeat. capital finds it's way to you. But, it's not.
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I'm happy to finally release DeepLeague. The first combination of computer vision, deep learning, and esports analytics + a dataset of over 100k labeled images to drive AI / esports research forward. Completely open-source. Enjoy.
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We made $100,000 just this week -- wild. 5-years ago, I started a different co and it took a year to get to $100 MRR -- here we are 1000X-ing that in a week lol. Learnings truly compound. The fails/wins you experience today will help you years down the line. Stay shipping!.
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After college, I didn't got a single job offer after I interviewed at places like FB, Google, etc. I always flopped on the leet code challenges. Felt unfair. I want to flip the model. You hack + ship for fun. Web3 cos approach you directly. Be judged by your ability to ship.
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here's my project for @_nightsweekends. gonna bring back my channel i had when i was 13. now, i'm 27. same kid -- new stories to tell. wyt?
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We started working on @_buildspace 10-weeks ago. Today, we reached 10,000 developers on the platform. Thank you for your support ✨.
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back to where it all started -- my mom's garage in pembroke pines, florida.
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there should be a v0 for games. start with modding minecraft in real time – just type something like "make lava flow 2x faster" or "make arrows explode" and the changes are instantly deployed to a server to test or play on with others. lets you iterate on a game like a website.
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damn. went viral. glad ppl love it <3. so initially there was no fucking way i was gonna keep working on this. was just a 2-day for fun build lol. but, now im just getting a lot of new ideas as i watch people use the app + talk to you all (funny how that works). i had a sick.
introducing freewrite. a mac app i made for myself. one simple, clean place to write without distraction. all in native swift. no subscription. all local. free. enjoy.
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We passed 20,000 devs on @_buildspace today ✨. Proud we've been able to onboard thousands of devs into web3 -- from 11 y/o's in India to senior engineers at places like Riot Games, Netflix, and Stripe. If you're one of us, drop an 🥑 below hehe. Let's keep hacking my friends.
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i put a lot of pressure on myself. you probably do as well. and it's weird. put too little, and complacency seeps into your life. put too much, you can end up a depressed wreck. i've come up with a little hack for myself:. i journal in the morning, feed it to an llm, and ask.
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Just got a text from my little brother who's visiting SF and thought $300 would be enough for 3-weeks.
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✨ Super excited to announce @_buildspace x @solana. In a weekend — pick up some Rust, write + deploy your first Solana Program, and ship a React app to let friends connect their wallet + interact w/ your deployed program. Capped at 3,000 signups 🤠.
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i was 22 when i came to sf in 2018. i was a random kid from florida. everyone ignored me. felt hopeless. and, this is where i got my first shot. this is home -- hope i see you on campus soon.
The VC world has made a misstep. Introducing the world's largest founder campus
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2022 was the toughest year of my life. on the outside, all was well. but on the inside, it was a struggle. building has been most my life -- but, what happens when after 15-years you lose your motivation to keep going?. i wrote an essay w/ my story:.
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Front-end engineers, designers, smart-contract devs, marketers, artists, founders, game devs, financial analysts -- the amount of talent at @_buildspace today is ridiculous. And, we want to help members capture the value they create for the world. Here's a peak into the future.
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thanks for all the love yesterday guys. im back at work. gonna try to make something wonderful for you. p.s: if you're in sf and wanna work together on something hmu im just tinkering.
hey everyone!. been a while. 6-months actually. i took a one-way flight out of sf with no plan. didn't know if i'd ever even come back. ended up spending time in some of the most peaceful places on the entire planet. from the villages of morocco to the remote forests of the.
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I remember before my YC interview -- I practiced answering questions for 2-days straight with my Mom and Dad. I'm telling you. Aint nothing quite like having your Pakistani mother + father obliterate your startup lol. Things get clear and simple real quick.
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45-days. 10-hours a day. If you're down to spend that time alongside me in SF creating a new AI tool for builders from scratch -- DM me some stuff you've built. Airbnb covered.
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made a small list— kinda like a book list, but for all the content i watched recently that made my neurons light up. mostly hidden gems + behind-the-scenes of stuff like minecraft early days, the beatles, lotr, a japanese hot dog stand and others. enjoy:.
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made a simple email script for my people who get anxiety from their inbox. been using daily for 3 months. - takes my emails.- tags directly in gmail w/ gpt.- my prompt knows what i like/hate. after its done, i go in gmail and can easily see my top 20 emails each day. enjoy :)
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Anime is a magical source of motivation. I still remember being in YC S20 feeling like everything I was working on was useless/trash. Dark times. Then, I saw Naruto vs Pain. I was inspired for like ~3-months -- grew 20% every week and raised millions at Demo Day lol.
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At 13, I started my journey making things on YouTube. I made hundreds of videos as a kid under the nickname "farzatv". Now, I'm 27 and am officially reviving that same childhood channel -- here's my toy trailer I just dropped. Really rough, lmk wyt. @_nightsweekends
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Web2: You haven't worked at Netflix, Apple, Amazon, or Google? Hmmm, it won't work out. Ty for applying tho!. Web3: We'd love to see your open-source PRs, the work you've done for DAOs, the random dapps you've shipped for fun, web3 blog posts you've written, and the NFTs you own.
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maybe it's not about changing the world, maybe its not about the billions. but maybe it's as simple as the fact that somebody somewhere invented the screen ur seeing this on, the chair i’m sitting in. the music playing through my headphones. and because of them, the world is a.
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We're offering a new class. The class is titled DMW-069. It covers things like -- going viral, understanding the algorithm, getting new marketing ideas. It's taught irl, on-campus. We know 99% of you aren't attending our SF campus. So, here's lecture 01. Stanford/MIT style.
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i love you.
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If you wanna get involved w/ a startup you like, DM'ing the founder is a 10/10 strategy. But, don't DM them an essay w/ your life history lol. A decent template:. "Hi! Here's a thing I shipped + the link to use it. It has x # of users rn. Your co is cool! Up to chat for 15m?".
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This is a box 📦. When I push the red button it:. Hits an ESP32 microcontroller connected to Wi-Fi, calls a Replit function to scrape my todos from Sunsama, and finally -- prints them out. Built by @sarvasvkulpati, check it out:
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you don't need a vision to start a company. you just gotta be a lil stupid. until very recently, whenever investors/hires would ask me my 10-year vision i would flat out say:. "i have no idea.". how being dumb ended up working out:.
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Making the latest investor update for @_buildspace public. TLDR:.- we killed a $1.5m biz. - in 2023 we got huge. - we said no to a $2m gov deal. - we wanna do more in 2024. - delaying s5 to summer. - we're building a product. - we're hiring -- a lot.
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