The guy with a one-word Twitter handle, a free Kindle book that outlived its publisher, and a $122M startup that sold for pocket change. He took notes the whole time.
Julien Smith is what happens when a person treats every decade as a different career. He has been, in rough order: a blogger before blogging was viable, a podcaster before podcasting was a job, a New York Times bestselling author before social media made that routine, a startup CEO who raised nine figures, and now the coach you call when you're a first-time CEO and the fog of uncertainty is getting thick.
He lives and works in Montreal - a city that gets overlooked by the startup press and that is, accordingly, an excellent place to build without fanfare. His morning ritual is 1,000 words of freehand writing, three cups of Chemex coffee, and a rule against checking email before noon. That has not changed across three radically different careers. The ritual is the constant; everything else is variable.
In 2006, Sirius Satellite Radio paid him to produce a hip-hop podcast called "In Over Your Head." He was not the most famous person to ever podcast. He was, by some accounts, the first person to get a paycheck for it. When the contract ended in 2007, he kept going anyway - which is a pattern worth noting.
In 2009, "Trust Agents" - co-written with Chris Brogan - hit the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists simultaneously. In 2011, Seth Godin edited his follow-up, "The Flinch," and released it free on Kindle. It is still among the most-read books on the platform more than a decade later. The premise: the flinch is the automatic recoil from discomfort. Most people spend their lives avoiding it. The interesting ones don't.
Then in 2014, he posted a blog essay called "The Complete Guide to Not Giving a Fuck." It went everywhere. A writer named Mark Manson noticed. A book called "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck" became one of the best-selling self-help titles of the 2010s. Smith has been gracious about the influence. The ideas, he'd say, belonged to anyone willing to act on them.
Breather was the decade-defining project. He co-founded it in 2012 after a very personal frustration: traveling as an author and speaker, needing a quiet place to work, and finding that the only options were loud coffee shops and hotel lobbies. The idea was elegant - rent a private room by the hour, unlock it with your phone, leave. It raised $6 million in 2013. Then $28.5 million. Then $122.5 million total. It grew to 500+ private spaces across North America and the UK. Smith stepped down as CEO in September 2018, just months after the company closed its $45 million Series B. In December 2020, the US and UK subsidiaries filed for insolvency. Industrious acquired the assets for $3 million.
That gap - $122 million raised, $3 million sold - is the kind of number that makes a person either quiet or interesting. Smith chose interesting. He turned the experience into curriculum for the next company, Practice, a platform for coaches and consultants that raised $12.4 million CAD in a seed round led by a16z's Andrew Chen in 2021, with backing from Tony Robbins, Andrew Wilkinson, Lenny Rachitsky, Nikita Bier, Sahil Bloom, and about 40 other angels. Practice shut down in November 2025.
Today Smith coaches first-time CEOs. He is specifically useful to the ones who are smart enough to know they don't know everything. He helps with finding customers, building teams, running operations, raising venture money. He has done all of those things. He has won at most of them and lost at some of them. That combination is, honestly, more valuable than a clean record.
"Those who don't give a fuck change the world. The rest do not."- Julien Smith, "The Complete Guide to Not Giving a Fuck" (2014)
Using the web to build influence, improve reputation, and earn trust. Landed on the NYT and WSJ bestseller lists simultaneously. Amazon Best Books of the Year, 800-CEO-READ Best Books of the Year.
NYT + WSJ BestsellerThe flinch is the automatic recoil from anything uncomfortable. This book is the case against it. Released free on Kindle as part of Seth Godin's Domino Project. Still one of the most-read Kindle books ever.
Free on Kindle ForeverAre you making things happen or just making noise? A framework for building real reach and real impact in the attention economy. The third collaboration between Smith and Brogan.
Impact Framework"You will never be entirely comfortable. This is the truth behind the champion - he is always fighting something. To do otherwise is to settle."- Julien Smith, The Flinch
In 2012, Julien Smith was traveling constantly - speaking at conferences, promoting books, meeting editors. Everywhere he went, he needed a quiet room to work in. Not a hotel room. Not a coffee shop. Just a private, clean, quiet space for an hour or two.
He couldn't find one. So he built it.
Breather was an app that let you rent a private workspace by the hour and unlock it with your phone. The concept was obvious in retrospect and invisible before Smith named it. He co-founded it with Caterina Rizzi and began raising.
The raises kept coming. $6 million in 2013. A Series B that pushed the total to $28.5 million. Then in 2018, Menlo Ventures and CDPQ put in $45 million more. Total capital raised: $122.5 million. Peak footprint: 500+ private spaces in 10 major cities across North America and the UK.
Smith stepped down as CEO in September 2018, just months after that $45M round closed. He stayed on as Chairman. In December 2020, Breather's US and UK subsidiaries filed for insolvency. Industrious, a larger flexible workspace player, acquired the assets for $3 million.
The gap between those two numbers - $122.5M raised, $3M out - is the brutal arithmetic of growth-at-all-costs. Smith has not been shy about what the experience taught him. It informed everything he did next.
Assets sold to Industrious, Dec 2020
Launched inoveryourhead.net and became one of the early influential voices on personal development and the social web. Organized online communities and flashmobs back when those were new ideas.
"In Over Your Head" - a hip-hop podcast - launched and grew to 150+ episodes. An audience found it before most people knew what a podcast was.
Sirius Satellite Radio (Channel 102) picked up the show. Friday nights, 7:30 PM ET. One of the first human beings on earth to receive a paycheck for producing a podcast.
Co-authored with Chris Brogan. Hit the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists simultaneously. Won Amazon Best Books and 800-CEO-READ Best Books of the Year.
Edited by Seth Godin. Released free on Kindle as part of the Domino Project. Became and remained one of the most-read Kindle books ever published.
On-demand private workspace platform. Co-founded with Caterina Rizzi. Raised $6M seed round led by RRE Ventures.
"The Complete Guide to Not Giving a Fuck" published on Medium. Shared millions of times. Widely credited as the inspiration behind Mark Manson's bestselling book "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck."
Total Breather funding reaches $122.5M. Smith exits the CEO role months later. Remains as Chairman of the Board.
Business management software for coaches and consultants. CRM, scheduling, invoicing, and client management in one platform.
US and UK subsidiaries file for insolvency. Industrious acquires assets for $3 million - a number that tells the whole story of pandemic + venture scale.
All-equity seed round led by Andrew Chen at a16z. 40+ angels including Tony Robbins, Lenny Rachitsky, Nikita Bier, Sahil Bloom, and Andrew Wilkinson.
Practice shuts down after four years. Smith pivots to executive coaching for first-time CEOs - helping them find customers, build teams, and raise money using everything he's learned.
"Going into the unknown is how you expand what is known."- Julien Smith
The flinch is the automatic, involuntary recoil you feel when something dangerous or uncomfortable approaches. It's a survival mechanism. It also, Smith argues, keeps most people exactly where they started.
Starting a company. Having a hard conversation. Publishing work before it's perfect. Asking for the thing you actually want. The flinch fires in all of these. Most people honor it. Smith says don't.
Cold showers. Hard conversations first thing. Physical challenges. Building the habit of moving through discomfort instead of around it. The flinch gets smaller every time you don't give it what it wants.
A morning routine is a theory of mind. Smith's has been consistent across two startups, three books, and a career that reinvented itself several times.
You can't make yourself feel positive, but you can choose how to act, and if you choose right, it builds your confidence.
When people don't like you, nothing actually happens. The world does not end.
You are the habits that you've formed.
There is no courage without fear.
Do what you say you'll do. No one is reliable anymore.
Everyone feels like they're not good enough. It's not just you.
Execution matters more than genius.
Your personality is not set in stone. You can change what you want about yourself at any time.
Secured by being among the first ~10,000 Twitter users. A single-word handle on the platform that became the internet's town square. Worth noting: he got there before most people knew it mattered.
His 2014 Medium post "The Complete Guide to Not Giving a Fuck" is widely credited as the direct inspiration for Mark Manson's book "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck" - one of the best-selling self-help titles of the 2010s.
Breather raised over $122 million. Its assets sold for $3 million. That ratio is a lesson in the difference between venture scale and sustainable business that Smith has been mining for curriculum ever since.
The Flinch has been free on Kindle since the day it launched in 2011. Seth Godin backed the decision. A decade-plus later, it's still one of the most-read books on the platform. Sometimes giving it away is how you keep it.
Sirius Satellite Radio paid him to podcast in 2006. This was before podcasting was an industry, a career path, or something most people had heard of. He was there first, and kept going after the contract ended.
His Medium bio. The contrast is specific and accurate in a way that a straight description wouldn't be. He has the skater's relationship with failure and the actor's ability to make you believe in the scene.
"Tip #100: Visit Iceland."- Julien Smith, "100 Tips About Life, People, and Happiness" (2014) - the final item in a widely-shared list
Before and alongside his startups, Smith built a parallel practice as a speaker and consultant. The clients were not small.
He also appeared on Chase Jarvis LIVE, The One You Feed podcast, Dave Asprey's Bulletproof podcast, and dozens of other shows and stages across the tech and creative industry conference circuit.
$12.4M CAD. All-equity. Led by Andrew Chen at a16z. 40+ angels.
Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, known for leading consumer and marketplace investments. His lead in the Practice round was the credibility signal the rest of the cap table followed.
Tony Robbins. Andrew Wilkinson (Tiny Capital). Lenny Rachitsky. Nikita Bier. Sahil Bloom. Austin Rief. Greg Isenberg. Josh Buckley. Brian Norgard. The angel list read like a who's-who of internet-era builders.
Practice shut down after four years. The farewell message to the community was signed "The Practice Team." Smith took the learnings and moved into executive coaching with them.