Sep 18, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min · 13 segments
Sam Hall is the founder of Wafer Systems. He skipped college, taught himself how to build, landed engineering jobs through cold outreach, and eventually raised $1.5M to start his own company. We talk…
Sam HallGuest
Arjay McCandlessHost
I think we'll get into this more when we talk about raising, but there's definitely something to be said about the advantage you have as a young person.
And this is a perfect example of you being interested and being also useful to him a year later.
I think there's like a good point here, which is like it seems kind of spooky to reach out to random people.
And and it's very difficult because, you know, when you're young and you're early, you don't have you don't think you have like a lot to offer somebody.
But but most people, they just appreciate it when you have like a very when like it's clear that you're reaching out to somebody because you've been like a really big fan of the things they've been putting out or like you really appreciate the work that they're doing.
So a lot of people just like, you know, it's is even like relatively... you know, they're these people who will get like 15,000, like followers on Twitter.
And, and like, you know, when I'm in high school, I'm like, wow, that's, that's like a ton of followers.
Like they probably get DMS all the time, but actually like a lot of times these people don't get like that much appreciation for like the work that they do.
And so if you come up and you send them, maybe, maybe you're not very good at writing succinct emails, but maybe you send them a three paragraph email and you get really excited about what they're doing.
It's like the one time that somebody is actually being like, wow, I really liked the thing you're doing.
And, And so people love it when you do that and they want to help you a lot when they see that you're earnest and excited about just kind of the world that they're in.
And it's like, well, okay, those are people who are actually getting 15,000 DMs.
I think we'll get into this more when we talk about raising, but there's definitely something to be said about the advantage you have as a young person.
And this is a perfect example of you being interested and being also useful to him a year later.
I think there's like a good point here, which is like it seems kind of spooky to reach out to random people.
And and it's very difficult because, you know, when you're young and you're early, you don't have you don't think you have like a lot to offer somebody.
But but most people, they just appreciate it when you have like a very when like it's clear that you're reaching out to somebody because you've been like a really big fan of the things they've been putting out or like you really appreciate the work that they're doing.
So a lot of people just like, you know, it's is even like relatively... you know, they're these people who will get like 15,000, like followers on Twitter.
And, and like, you know, when I'm in high school, I'm like, wow, that's, that's like a ton of followers.
Like they probably get DMS all the time, but actually like a lot of times these people don't get like that much appreciation for like the work that they do.
And so if you come up and you send them, maybe, maybe you're not very good at writing succinct emails, but maybe you send them a three paragraph email and you get really excited about what they're doing.
It's like the one time that somebody is actually being like, wow, I really liked the thing you're doing.
And, And so people love it when you do that and they want to help you a lot when they see that you're earnest and excited about just kind of the world that they're in.
And it's like, well, okay, those are people who are actually getting 15,000 DMs.
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