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With the right project, skills, dedication, some funding and a little luck it is quite possible for a single person to build a business that produces $100K to $
by rebootthesystem 11y ago
With the right project, skills, dedication, some funding and a little luck it is quite possible for a single person to build a business that produces $100K to $200K per month free cash. I understand that SV culture of building for $100MM+ exits but that is utopia. All you have to do is run the stats against total business startups (and failures) per year to confirm this claim.
As for single vs. multi-founder companies. I see SV from afar as an environment where young VC's incubate all manner of ideas by young inexperienced people. It's an educated shotgun approach. And it obviously works or it would have died off a long time ago.
In that context I would say it is absolutely imperative to have more than one person on a team. Why? Because business is hard and most 20-somethings today have never done anything even remotely as hard in their lives. When business slaps you around and tests your limits and you are an inexperienced young person without a support system around you failure is almost guaranteed. Add co-founders to spread the stress, discuss, find solutions and feel like a team with a dose of guidance, money, advise and the benefits of the experience of good VC's and you can make interesting things happen.
Again, in that context, yes, you need multiple founders.
With more experienced entrepreneurs who've been tested in business I don't think the solo founder thing is a problem at all. We can manage the business just fine and we can hire good people to do what's needed. The benefit of experience is that problems are met with aplomb and a mental and business toolbox that turns mountains into hills.
Money is a a thing separate from the single/multi founder issue. You can fail miserably with lots of money and a large team and you can succeed with little money and a guy coding at home (PlentyOfFish anyone?).
What money can and does do is light a rocket under a good thing at the right point in time to make it go. Money is like the blood in the veins of a business. Without enough of it you are not going to go run a marathon and win.