Ranking Startup Cities, Funding, and Founder Books | The Tier List with Brennan

**Brennan Pothetes** builds companies out of New York, and in this episode he says San Francisco is a B tier place to start one. No guest this time. Just the arguments he has with founder friends over drinks, settled out loud with letter grades. Brennan ranks the six things founders fight about most: where to build, how to fund it, what to read, how to lead, how to work, and what to do with your twenties. Profitable businesses take S tier for funding, while venture, the path he has raised on for years, lands at B. Deep work blocks beat 996. Europe gets an F, and he knows his European investors are watching. Radical candor tops the management list, with fear-based hero mode at the bottom next to LinkedIn slop. For founders tired of consensus takes, the grades are the point. **In this episode:** • Why New York is S tier for applied AI, and what San Francisco's flood of talent actually costs you • The funding source Brennan puts above venture, debt, and private equity • The one way to fund a company he says you should never use • Why deep work blocks outrank the 996 schedule taking over AI • The book he made required reading at his own company, and the one he rates F tier • The leadership style he built his companies on, and the one that quietly wears teams down • What he tells 22-year-olds to do instead of firing off AI-written resumes Subscribe for more unfiltered founder conversations on Not Another Podcast. Watch on YouTube, listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Follow Brennan and Infinity for what's next. **Timestamps:** 00:00 Intro 00:41 Welcome to the tier list 00:58 Founder work philosophies 01:45 Why 996 lands at C 02:23 LinkedIn slop, F tier 02:38 The best city to found in 03:45 San Francisco at B 04:05 Anywhere in Europe, F tier 04:25 New York at S 05:03 Fundraising sources 05:54 The one way he says never to fund a company 06:12 Books for founders 07:17 Your professor's textbook, F tier 07:41 Management and leadership styles 09:21 Fear-based hero mode 09:45 Radical candor at S 10:04 What to do in your 20s 10:19 Travel, and the Octopus card in Hong Kong 11:28 The S tier career move 12:21 AI-written resumes, F tier