Hey it's Damian,

I'm writing this from the lounge of Founders House. Unopened packages by the door, the walls are still bare (we're working on it). But founders are building and creating behind me before we even open. We couldn't wait! Come in next week.

This week, I'm writing about the future of go to market. What I'm seeing from afar at a16z, Anthropic, and PayPal, and what I'm hearing first-hand from founders building inside the community. Let's get into it.

📅 This Week + #NYTechWeek at the House

• This week + all next week | 👀 Daily Cowork Slots at Founders House (NYC). Cowork days have been filling up. We opened up more through opening week.

• Tue, June 2 | 🏃 Founders Run + Coffee (NYC). 7am, where it all began!

• Tue, June 2 | 🧘 Morning Wellness at the House (NYC).

• Tue, June 2 | 🛠 GTM Masterclass (NYC). Tactical scaling tips from Cristina Ciaravalli. She was the #1 salesperson at two fintech unicorns and has worked with Cursor, Lithic, Ramp.

• Tue, June 2 | 🎙 Investing in Health and Wellness Panel (NYC). Katie Kirsch (a16z), Jenny Liu (Crush It Ventures), and Nate Kline (Cistern Capital).

• Tue, June 2 | 💸 2-Hour Media Method Masterclass (NYC/online). Sharing our content framework.

• Wed, June 3 | 🥂 VC-Backed Female Founders Breakfast (NYC). With Carta, Foundess, and Founders House.

• Mon, June 15 | 🧘 Female Founder Reset (NYC). Yoga, guided sound bath, real conversation. For women founders building seriously.

Winning go to market in 2026 and beyond

The new go-to-market is IRL plus content. Show up in person and build the content around the process. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), the venture firm run by billionaires Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, has been openly preaching that every company will need a founder personality to lead it’s growth strategy. Anthropic is hiring a head of ecosystem to run it’s IRL initiatives and partnerships. PayPal recently hired for a new role: head of CEO content. The pattern is hard to miss.

It's the move Louisa and I have unintentionally used to grow Founders House from day one.

Six months ago, I posted a video on Instagram about wanting to build a work and wellness club for founders in NYC. A woman at a private membership club in Midtown saw it and reached out cold. Louisa and I met up with her in person back in September. That conversation is the reason we're opening Founders House at 22 Vanderbilt, right next to Grand Central. Money couldn't have bought us into that building.

Both of Louisa and I built our communities by accident here in NYC. I was hosting runs for founders in NYC for over 2 years (our latest run pictured above) before even thinking about launching a physical space. We had grown to over 20,000 founders before we launched. Kiki Couchman from sourmilk grew her email list to over 2,000 people before she even had a product.

Same play in all three cases. Don’t wait until you have the product to build a following. Start hosting events and making content. Tell the story along the way and doors will open that you didn’t even know existed.

Things I'm picking up from the cowork days

I planned to spend pre-launch week doing operations, adding signage, installing phone booth, and stocking pantry orders. Instead I've spent most of it sitting in conversations. Next to founders who are heads-down building.

Here's what's stuck with me from this week.

1. AI plus physical-market is a real wedge

One founder walked me through how he built an AI plus on-the-ground physical-market play and ended up with Gary Vee as a customer. In short: (1) personalized snail mail ot prospect, (2) links to a landing page personalized to each prospect, (3) follow up via LinkedIn DMs and interns making cold calls. I'd been thinking about AI tools and physical-world distribution as separate playbooks. The combination is the wedge.

2. Product-led growth is still the unlock

Another YC alum broke down the growth strategy behind a $50M ARR startup (he was a founding engineer). Big piece of it was product-led growth. Specifically the design of their referral program to gain “brain share.” Make the referral offer inside of your product so enticing it would be crazy not to share. Most of the founders I talk to are still over-indexed on paid acquisition. So this was a useful reminder.

3. NASA grants are a real funding source

Two different founders this week mentioned NASA grants as a non-dilutive way they're funding their builds. Not the first place I'd have looked, but it kept showing up. Worth a closer look if you're capital-light and building anything adjacent.

4. IRL plus content keeps coming up in every conversation

This is what founders ask me about every cowork day. How the runs became Founders House. How a video became 22 Vanderbilt. How they could do something similar without a team or a budget. It's the through-line of this newsletter and I'll do a proper deep dive soon.

A more personal note

The other half of pre-launch has been the unglamorous work. We don’t have a team yet, so I’m opening boxes, wiping down surfaces, and doing the dishes. But it's the kind of work that’s a lot easier when the end goal is so meaningful: creating a space where builders belong.

It's also part of why I've been spending pre-launch in conversations more than in operations. I've spent the last few years building a media company for clinicians and creators to multiple seven figures. Founders coworking at the House have been sitting next to me asking how to do it for themselves. That's why I'm running a free Two-Hour Media Method Masterclass next Tuesday at 5pm. Same framework I use myself.

How to join the community

Book a Sneak Peek Visit → · Apply to Join Founders House →

Apply to visit Founders House if you want to see the space next week. We’re looking for founders who are building real products and looking to scale. If you have questions shoot me a message on LinkedIn or Instagram.

See you soon,

Damian