“Austin & Oli on funding and incubating projects” by Austin Chen, habryka

@habryka and I recently spoke about his plans to improve the AI safety funding ecosystem with a better S-Process platform, and my new incubator for EA/AIS software projects, Surplus (since launched; apply now!) We also cover: hot takes on different funders; what kinds of founders might succeed in the age of vibecoding; whether to do direct work or go meta; and what we respect and criticize in each other. Watch along here: I've transcribed the full conversation at https://peruse.sh/ep/austin-chen-and-oliver-habryka-on-funding-incubating-project. (Beware: the AI makes notable edits for readability, sometimes distorting what the speaker meant. If specific phrasing is cruxy, listen to the audio.) Selected quotes The cursed game of philanthropy Oli: "Philanthropy is one of the most cursed games in existence... The default outcome of what happens when rich people try to do philanthropy is that they think about starting a foundation, they imagine hiring someone on the market and ask themselves: who am I going to show up and feel comfortable trusting most of my net worth to? That doesn't make any sense. And so what they often end up doing is making a family office. The only way to solve this principal-agent problem is to choose [...] ---Outline:(00:55) Selected quotes(06:54) Chapters(08:32) Referenced links(09:02) Full transcript(09:07) Critiques of SFF's grant process \[0:00\](11:26) The SFF application process \[2:26\](12:50) The speculation grant freeze for advocacy orgs \[3:40\](14:29) A lower-trust, more transparent funding process \[5:04\](16:26) How the S-process works \[6:53\](20:18) Naming and communicating the value to funders \[10:54\](25:42) EA philanthropy and the principal-agent problem: Open Philanthropy, Longview \[15:51\](31:11) How much funding is coming \[21:28\](32:32) Surplus: the incubator \[22:33\](34:46) Why for-profits over nonprofits \[24:37\](37:33) The ideal founder profile \[27:11\](40:52) Whether writers can found startups in the vibe-coding era \[30:26\](42:19) Monetizing public communications projects \[31:45\](53:00) Oliver's case for the incubator \[42:09\](54:34) On professional grantmakers \[44:04\](57:53) Whether infrastructure work is more direct than safety research \[47:36\](01:01:41) The case for a better AI safety journal \[51:08\](01:04:03) Mutual feedback \[53:17\](01:10:04) How to help: LessWrong, Surplus, and the S-process \[1:01:01\] --- First published: June 27th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Jh2xsoySxacQDJMwz/austin-and-oli-on-funding-and-incubating-projects --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.