How To Get $1,000 For Your Project, No Strings Attached | Solo Grants

Thu, 09 Jul 2026 14:51:50 +0000

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's leading the program and a former grantee himself, to map the wide world of microgrants (1517, Emergent Ventures, the Thiel Fellowship), tell the story of the grantee whose covered Airtable bill built the world's largest phage database (he went on to discover three new viruses that same year), and explain why the gap between a project seen through and one abandoned is usually just a few hundred dollars.

Apply for a Solo Grant or browse the microgrants directory: https://sologrants.com

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episo....de/2NfvQyib57HT1NcoF
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/....podcast/how-to-get-%
Notes & more from the episode: https://solofounders.com/blog/....introducing-solo-gra

Chapters:
00:00 The announcement: Solo Grants is live
01:52 What makes a Solo Grant different (it doesn't have to be a business)
03:34 Check sizes ($100–$1,000) and the routing layer into the wider world of grants
05:10 The microgrants space and the origin of Merge
07:04 Microgrants 101: the world of no-strings money (1517, Emergent Ventures, Thiel Fellowship)
08:53 Thiel Fellowship origins, Ethereum, and raising ambitions
11:06 The builders who never looked for co-founders
11:46 The world is a series of passion projects
14:35 Why more people don't build: the few-hundred-dollar gap and role models
19:02 The grantee who asked for $100 less
21:56 Ari's story: a $500 check, 1517, and Emergent Ventures saying "be more ambitious"
26:07 Building the largest photography Discord and meeting Julian
30:40 Merge becomes Solo Grants: solo, in community
32:59 Kai Goodall and the team
35:54 The directory, the grantee showcase, and how to apply

About Ari Dutilh:
Ari Dutilh is leading Solo Grants (formerly Merge), the Solo Founders program giving $100–$1,000 no-strings grants to people building technically ambitious projects solo — and routing them into the wider world of microgrants. He's been on both sides of the check: as a high schooler he built Buildergroop and the 40,000-member Photography Lounge on Discord; his first $500 grant came from a founder he bumped into, a 1517 grant followed, and Emergent Ventures later funded his biotech project. He also runs production and media for Solo Founders.

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Apply to the Solo Founders cohort: https://solofounders.com/apply