The Zero-Crew Startup Experiment: How High Can We Fly?
The Squad Experiment
What happens when you replace every hire with an AI agent?
I can run this experiment solo, but I think finding a group of elite founders will make it more powerful. Read on...
The Evolution of Building
15 years ago, launching SprintDojo would've needed 5-6 people: developer, designer, copywriter, marketer, support person, maybe a PM to coordinate.
A year ago, I could've done it with 2-3 solid hires and some contractor help.
Last month I built the entire thing alone in under 30 days: frontend, backend, content, SEO, everything.
Total cost: $47 in AI credits.
This is a completely different game.
The Agents Are Already Here
Right now, for a few hundred bucks a month, you can deploy:
- Dev squad: Claude Code + Cursor + automated testing + deployment workflows
- Growth engine: Content generation + outbound sequences + analytics dashboards
- Support desk: Knowledge base + chat routing + customer success pipelines
- Operations: Invoice processing + onboarding automation + reporting systems
The question isn't whether this is possible. The question is: How high can we fly with zero payroll drag?
The Squad Experiment up to 9 founders. 9 zero-employee startups. Complete transparency.
We create a private X group where we share daily:
- Agent workflows that worked (and failed)
- Revenue/user metrics
- One "impossible without humans" task we cracked
- Help each other on whatever thing we need
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The Format
- Daily async chat in our X group sharing our learnings
- Optional demo days (we'll design the rhythm together based on timezones/preferences)
- Everything shared openly—prompts, failures, revenue numbers
- After 6 months, we decide: continue, evolve, or wrap
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The Cost
No equity. No fees. Just shared learning among peers.
Target: $1M MRR, Zero Crew
Hit $1M annual recurring revenue with no payroll - just founders, co-founders, investors, and AI agents.
Who Should Join
- AI operators - you're already building, hacking and creating some magic in the AI world
- Passionate builders - we love people with passionate, healthy obsessions about their craft
- Great friends - this group will probably become a group of amazing friends
- Complementary expertise ideally - find people with skills we can help each other
- Global perspective - people from all over, so we can have a global view of the problems we wanna solve
Don't join if you're:
- Still hiring employees for roles AI could handle
- Operating in stealth mode or keeping metrics private
- Treating this like networking rather than a serious experiment
Join The Squad
- Step 1: DM me "ZERO CREW" on X
- Step 2: Quick call to see if we're a good fit
- Step 3: Meet the current squad members
- Step 4: If they're cool with it, you're in
The faster we move, the easier it gets - less people need to say yes as the group fills up.
Starting with 6 founders. We'll reevaluate when we hit 6 if we want to expand to the full 9.
About Zero Crew
I've had this almost obsession for years - how can you build a company without employees?
It started 15 years ago at a tango event with 1,000 people. The organizers made $100-200K from just one event per year, then spent the rest doing dolce far niente. I couldn't stop thinking about it.
Finally, with AI, this is perfectly possible. It's like all the dots are connecting in my life now.
But What About Jobs?
"If startups need zero employees, where do humans work?"
I hope: Everyone becomes a founder.
As startup costs crater from $500K to $5K, entrepreneurship stops being exclusive. The barista, the teacher, the accountant—they can all afford to take a swing now. We're democratizing entrepreneurship.
If this works, we'll open-source the playbook so anyone can do it.
A New model
The old model: Raise millions. Hire dozens. Hope for billions.
The new model: Founding team. Zero payroll. Let's find the limit.