Happy Friday!
Let’s try something new.
Take a deep breath.
Close your eyes.
Forget the Slack pings, unread emails, and that pitch deck screaming for attention.
Now imagine this: You're living in a historic mansion in San Francisco. Your laundry is done for you. Meals are curated.
Fuzzy robes are optional, but highly encouraged. And your only job? To build the future.
Welcome to HF0, the most unorthodox startup accelerator in the world, and possibly the most productive.
📌 So, what is HF0?
On the northeast corner of Alamo Square Park in San Francisco stands a historic mansion with creaky staircases, polished wood paneling, and a cold plunge tub that’s seen more startup breakthroughs than a WeWork whiteboard.
Welcome to HF0, short for Hacker Fellowship Zero - a startup accelerator disguised as a monk’s retreat.
At first glance, it looks like a spa for coders.
No one cooks, no one cleans, no one launders. Life’s tedium, laundry bags, grocery runs, and rent stress are entirely stripped away so that the only thing left is… startup glory.
They call it “monastery mode.” And in HF0’s world, your object of meditation isn’t breath: it's code.
📌 So what’s really going on inside?
The day begins when a gong rings for meals (yes, an actual gong).
Residents meditate, breathe deeply, wear fuzzy robes, and build companies
There’s no alcohol, no weed, just caffeine-laced green tea.
Every Monday, founders give spiritual yet savage updates like:
“$500K ARR this week. 10K new users. Crunch time.”
At night, they gather for pitch practice. By day, they build. No hackathon energy here, this is long-game productivity meets sacred startup grind.
Download now - https://www.towardsagi.ai/gen-matrix/ 📌 But why the whole monastery vibe?
Dave Fontenot, HF0’s energetic and eccentric founder, calls it a “monastery for hackers.” He’s not joking.
Fontenot once lived in actual monasteries in Thailand and China. Now he’s trying to rewire Silicon Valley’s hustle culture by turning founder focus into a kind of modern-day spiritual practice.
He believes the lessons from Buddhist monasteries, silence, discipline, and presence, are the exact ingredients startups need.
And it’s working. Some alums have already built billion-dollar startups (yes, including folks from OpenSea and Clearco). Others are just getting started.
HF0 isn’t just woo-woo, it’s also a venture capital fund, taking 5% equity from every founder it hosts.
But instead of throwing them into coworking chaos, it gives them peace, quiet, kombucha, and allegedly some of the most productive 12 weeks of their lives.
📌 So, is this just YC in a bathrobe?
Not quite. For years, YC (Y Combinator) was the gold standard. If you didn’t get in, you “settled” for other programs. But HF0 is changing that narrative.
Here’s why people apply in droves (thousands per batch, only 10 get in):
It’s immersive, everyone lives together.
It’s tailored for second-time, post-exit founders who want fewer distractions.
It feels like a college dorm meets a zen dojo meets a venture fund.
And it’s weird in all the right ways.
Even its promos lean existential:
“Your startup is your whole life. How far are you willing to go?”
📌 What does this say about startup culture in 2025?
A few things:
Meditation is the new productivity hack.
Communal living is back, but now with investor intros and catered meals.
The AI boom has breathed new life into San Francisco’s startup scene.
And somewhere between capitalism and consciousness lies a cold plunge tub that might just change your life.
So, that’s it for today. If you found this edition interesting and entertaining, please drop a like and follow us for more!
See ya👋
