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Will single founders please stand up?
- shpxnvz 17y agoI am a single founder, though my wife helps on occasion. I do try to get as much advice and input from friends and colleagues as I can, so in all honesty I'd have to say it's a team effort.
- johnpratt 17y agoI thought it was too hard to start a company with a single founder because Paul Graham said so. That guy knows everything about start ups. He is possibly the greatest entrepreneur of all time and didn't benefit from a bubble or anything. Anybody more successful than pg only got there due to luck. Everybody involved with start ups should just read everything he writes, conform to it, and help spread the word. You can't become a trailblazer until you embrace this dogma.
- iag 17y agoha ha ha... good one.
- david927 17y agoThis deserves the down votes because it's a little more smirky than funny, but there's a valid point here. YC has has been called a cult before, and I don't think anyone would argue that there are some eccentricities, and one of these is the over-valuing of the two founder model. You can't become a trailblazer until you embrace this dogma. That's a great line, actually, and says it all.
- prakash 17y agopatio11/Patrick is another single founder.
- Sukotto 17y agoBut he's also unusual in other ways. He never quit his day job and he doesn't live in any of the major technology areas. (He's also remarkably forthright about his experiences and finances... something I find really motivating)
- prakash 17y agoInterestingly, there seems to be a higher percentage of single founders in the MicroISV type of companies.
- kapitti 17y agoWasn't balsamiq (Peldi) a single founder? I've founded a few startups as a single founder, but they'd most likely be classified as Micro-ISV's instead of startups. But I'm okay with that.
- JesseAldridge 17y agoHe's married and I'm pretty sure his wife plays at least a peripheral role in the company... So, sort of(?)
- DanielBMarkham 17y agoI'm another single founder. I spent a lot of time looking for cofounders but after a few months without success I decided it was better to create something, even if it wasn't an optimum setup, than to keep spending energy playing matchmaker. I've found that people have wildly different ideas about both the reason to do a startup, how to execute, what's important, and where to exit. There's a great diversity even among people who know/read a lot about it. In fact, I'm amazed that the multiple founder system works at all. Except for cases where everybody is a college friend or something, it looks like a recipe for a lot of conflict.
- RK 17y agoMaybe there needs to be an eHarmony.com for finding co-founders.
- marilyn 17y agoA quick google (find co-founders) shows there is at least one: http://www.partnerup.com/ http://www.partnerup.com/
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- alain94040 17y agohttp://fairsoftware.net/find-cofounders-for-your-startup http://fairsoftware.net/find-cofounders-for-your-startup and http://www.meetup.com/Co-Founders-Wanted-Meetup/ http://www.meetup.com/Co-Founders-Wanted-Meetup/ are dedicated to finding co-founders. The first one is for worldwide online, the second link is for Silicon Valley in person. (I'm behind both)
- davidw 17y agoStarting a company has been compared to getting married, and while plenty of people have met their future spouses on dating sites, they don't meet, talk a few times, and then get hitched. Perhaps the missing bit is finding something people can work on for a while without the commitment of a company (sort of like dating...).
- chris123 17y agoMore single-founder stories: Overture (Bill Gross), eBay (Pierre Omidyar), Napster (Sean Fanning), Lycos (Michael Mauldin), Amazon (Jeff Bezos), AOL (William von Meister), Digg (Kevin Rose). Source: "If you’re going to launch a startup, how many friends do you need?": http://buzzpal.wordpress.com/2008/01/06/if-youre-going-to-launch-a-startup-how-many-friends-do-you-need/ http://buzzpal.wordpress.com/2008/01/06/if-youre-going-to-la...
- mhartl 17y agoActually, Napster had a cofounder, Sean Parker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Parker http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Parker).
- dnsworks 17y agoShawn also had an incredible amount of help from Jordan Ritter and Ali Aydar before the company was even a company. He also would have been a lot better as a single-founder, as his co-founder uncle John Fanning took advantage of his inexperience.
- pg 17y agoLycos was not a single founder startup. It was a weird deal where CMGI bought the technology, turned it into a company, and then hired someone to run it. Nor was Amazon, really: Bezos had a de facto cofounder called Shel Kaphan, who wrote all the initial code.
- psranga 17y agoIf you count early employees as co-founders, then fine (that's probably why you wrote "de facto"). http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.03/bezos_pr.html http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.03/bezos_pr.html "Over blueberry pancakes at the Sash Mill Cafe in Santa Cruz, Bezos managed to convince one of them, Shel Kaphan, to become employee number one."
- pg 17y ago
- ashishk 17y agoI'm a single founder. Thinking about crossing over to the dark side, but it's not such a bad life. You keep more control of the company, but things move slower as a result.
- axod 17y agoWhy not just wait until you can employ someone? :)
- nfnaaron 17y agoPlease, would experienced someones address this question? For example, the essential difference between a co-founder and employee #1, and why you might want the one to perform some set of duties rather than the other.
- jack7890 17y agoI think money has a lot to do with it. Founders work only for equity until the company has traction. Employees expect to be paid.
- nfnaaron 17y agoYeah, that occurred to me as I pressed Send. But assuming you can afford employee #1 (making cost somewhat moot), why otherwise might you decide to go in either direction?
- drusenko 17y agocofounders typically have a lot more equity, and hence are typically much more motivated to work 24x7 until things are up and running. employees are not motivated in the same way.
- rythie 17y agoAxod is mentioned in the article and his site, mibbit.com has over 100k uniques on compete. Are you saying he is in-experienced?
- maxklein 17y agoTo be a single founder, you need to be quite special. Most people are not that special. A lot of those who think they are that special, actually are not. It's not smarts you need - it's self organisational ability, and most people lack that if there is nobody else watching them.
- huherto 17y agoActually to me one of the things I miss is being able to show what I've done. It is engergizing to show your work and if you don't have anyone as exited is harder. Same thing happens when you work on a company that doesn't understand what you are doing.
- gcheong 17y agoIf you cannot self-organize then you likely would not make a very good co-founder either. I do not want to be the co-founder who needs watching over nor would I want to have a co-founder that needed me to watch over them. It's all external motivation and that's the worst kind.
- sid- 17y agoFinding a co-founder who matches your views and passion on all the points mentioned above to a reasonable degree is as hard as finding the mythical soulmate. Maybe someone can have a startup like eHarmony (eCoFounder?) for finding such like minded people.
- axod 17y agoIt's sort of worse. With relationships, if you break up, you move on, find another mate. You get over it. Once you're sure they're "the one", then if you like you can do a family startup and create some babies. But with a startup, you don't usually have any time before you start building something. So if something does go wrong, the split up is bad. It'd be like having a baby with every one of your ex girlfriends :/ I think ideally founders should have already worked together on something.
- philwelch 17y agoThe best idea may be to consciously "date" your co-founders by working with them on side projects, possibly open source.
- dnsworks 17y agoThis prospect is just scary to me. Personally I'd be looking for a co-founder as driven to succeed as I am. I've sat down with 1/2 dozen potential co-founders for one of my projects and have decided to go it alone because of this. I'm building a company to make money, not to give away the fruits of my labor.
- dnsworks 17y agoThis prospect is just scary to me. Personally I'd be looking for a co-founder as driven to succeed as I am. I've sat down with 1/2 dozen potential co-founders for one of my projects and have decided to go it alone because of this. I'm building a company to make money, not to give away the fruits of my labor.
- dnsworks 17y ago
- larsberg 17y agoHa! I first thought this meant "unmarried" rather than "unpartnered."
- ryanelkins 17y agoSame here. I clicked through thinking "Wow, I always thought most founders were single and being married made me a minority."
- Tawheed 17y agoSingle founder here. But I'll admit it: I can use as much support as I can get sometimes. I've been thinking of starting a "braintrust" of solo entrepreneurs so that we can pursue our respective passions but also reap some of the benefits of having a co-founder, by sharing ideas, debating stuff, etc. Anyone interested in joining?
- fizx 17y agoThere's a couple of these already in progress, but you usually have to get introduced to them via your network. Ask around :)
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- Tawheed 17y agoI'd rather start my own ;)
- mixmax 17y agoThat's the single founder spirit :-)
- codyrobbins 17y agoI’m in. We have to meet at a scotch bar in NYC, though ;)
- Tawheed 17y agoDeal!
- akadien 17y agoI am.
- minalecs 17y agoTo find someone to devote free time to more work, to reach the end goal that maybe months down the line is hard to do. I've been approached by others to join their side projects, but I would rather work on my own and I think this is maybe how a lot of people feel. Any other founders in this predicament as well ?
- chrischen 17y agoMe! while i always try to find someone to help me on my projects, it really is difficult to find someone as passionate a founder as I am. But I never let that fact stop me from doing what I do. It's also forced me to become technical.
- johnrob 17y agoGetting users is just as hard building a product. In a way it's harder, because it is very easy to put energy into product that should have gone to user acquisition. The biggest weakness of being a single founder is that you can't put 100% effort into getting customers (since you're distracted by building the product).
- grellas 17y agoIt is important not to be dogmatic on this issue. Startups come in all shapes and sizes and there is plenty of room in there for single-founder companies. I have represented at least one single-founder company that eventually grew to $16B valuation in the fiber optics space and another that grew to $1B valuation in consumer electronics software. Are these unusual exceptions to the rule? Sure. But they do exist and there are undoubtedly a reasonable percentage of successful startups like them that start in just this way. The startup process is best viewed as a continuum, ranging from the very early formative steps to much-more sophisticated steps later on. At some point along the continuum it is essential for most successful startups to add other team members because, when you scale to something great, you basically can't do it alone. But no one says this teaming process has to occur as the absolute first step in the process. It can occur later and, indeed, much later (both of the multi-B companies I mention above were several years into the process before the sole founders brought in other key team players). The key at the beginning is founder credibility, whether found singly or in a team. If someone is sharp enough, he will find the means eventually to add key people even though, at inception, he finds himself working all alone. Having said that, I will be the first to say that it takes a pretty exceptional founder to be able to start alone and build to large success. But many such founders exist and they can rank right up there with other founders in all the qualities that count toward success. At least that has been my direct experience in having worked with a broad range of founders over many years.
- fizx 17y agoSingle founder, and damn it's tough. :)
- bestes 17y agoI'm also single founder. I've spent quite a bit of time looking for a co-founder and would like a co-founder, but at this point, I figure I just need to ship something and worry about it later.
- Sukotto 17y agoI think the Smart Bear guy was a single founder too. (edit: His name is Jason Cohen)
- rphlx 17y agoCodeReviewer is one of the slowest/buggiest crap developer tools on Earth, largely due to its reliance on windows file sharing. It's often using 40% CPU for no reason, sometimes does not notify on new reviews, goes unresponsive every 2-3 days, etc. Purely from an FU-money-exit point of view, I suppose SB was successful. But IMO that guy seriously needed a good technical cofounder.
- dennykmiu 17y agoMy first startup I was the sole Founder and I had a number of early employees. I was the prime mover and I was the one who had the most stock. Until we were funded, their salaries were paid with my savings. My second startup I was the Founder but I had a bunch of early employees who were called co-Founders. I was still the prime mover but no one was getting paid until we started to ship products. We basically had equal amount of stock even though I started the company first and I took risk when no one else would. My experience is that it was a lot harder to get VC fundings when there were large number of co-Founders. VC's are not company builders and in order to ensure timely execution towards a financially successful exit, they would have no problem firing the Founder(s). So in some way, having a large number of co-Founders is sub-optimal (for the VC's).
- morphle 17y agoI'm now a single founder (again). I also was a single founder with the first three startups I did. I keep trying out cofounders, but they all seem to lack perseverance. Most also have difficulty understanding the tech. I would welcome a business cofounder any day. Email me if you are interested.
- dmillar 17y agoI'm a single founder. I fall in the "tech cofounder" and would welcome a "business cofounder" any day. And, speaking of which, find me if you'd be interested.
- nvasilak 17y agoAnother one here. But I'd love to have a cofounder that could bring something else to the table. Maybe we should start a list of companies interested in finding cofounders?
- vaksel 17y agoNothing wrong with being a single founder, a 1 founder business with 40K in profit is already ramen profitable. A 2-3 founder business with 40K in profit is not.
- curtisspope 17y agoCurtiss P AisleFinder.com
- raffi 17y agoIt can work out, but it's a long road. http://blog.afterthedeadline.com/2009/09/08/after-the-deadline-acquired/ http://blog.afterthedeadline.com/2009/09/08/after-the-deadli...
- ww8520 17y agoI'm a single founder, done all the work in product development, marketing, and sales. It's not bad at all.
- jhancock 17y agoI'm a single founder: by circumstance of location, self-funding, age, and family. I do understand why investors prioritize investment into startups with co-founders. I suppose if I was splashing money around, I'd do the same. I have been through enough to learn to engineer my startup plans to the resources I have.
- ww8520 17y agoHow I started my company is kind of funny. While talking to my friend, I had this idea I thought was great. I tried to sell it to him and asked him to develop it, but his heart was in doing another project, his own idea. I told him, it's not hard at all; let me show you. He was still not interested. I proceeded to do a design and built a prototype. One thing led to another, it became my product and my company.
- crocowhile 17y agoIt would be nice to see a table with HN members and their startups next to them. Does anything like this exist?
- morphle 17y agoYes, there are several lists. The most complete one was done in 2009 in a Google Docs spreadsheet. I have a hard time finding it again, thanks to Google not allowing you to download these docs...
- crocowhile 17y agoIf anybody can find it, please post the link here and then someone should email pg jeromec's suggestion of having a project page. At the end of the day HN is all about collaboration and inspiration so that would help a lot, I think.
- david927 17y agohttp://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AgCvDTyBjHdOdDFfMENqeWVGNVFxTXdnaDZBRkd0cUE&hl=en http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AgCvDTyBjHdOdDFfMENq...
- jeromec 17y agoThere was a thread called "What are you working on?" here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1032699 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1032699 and someone suggested the topic come up periodically, which I thought was a great idea. Even better, I think, would be if pg would add a 'Projects' link up top and the projects of members could be listed. The list might be sorted by vote, or perhaps randomly, and refreshed daily.
- crocowhile 17y agoThis is a brilliant idea.
- christonog 17y ago
- gkoberger 17y agoThis is a bit unrelated, however I once heard a quote regarding co-founders: "Even when there are multiple founders, somebody is in charge" Co-founders don't necessarily mean "equals." You can have co-founders that are less involved than yourself (still giving you the value of a co-founder, without requiring them to be equally as invested as yourself). Another thing to think about is ownership of the idea- almost by definition, the person who comes up with the idea will be the most involved. If you're looking for a co-founder, it will be much easier if you don't yet have an idea, and come up with one together.
- morphle 17y agoWhat a lot of single founders are out there! I am pleasantly supprised. I would dare predict that the first company to successfully compete with Ycombinator will be the one that does (truly) accept single founders.
- matt1 17y agoI'm a sole founder and I'd love to have a smart, hardworking cofounder. I'm a nights and weekends coder and will likely remain so until it makes sense to go full time. I'm currently developing (with Rails) a timeline app called Preceden, which will compete with more established timeline sites like Dipity and Lifeblob. I'm in the Philly area, but I'm shooting for the Bay Area in a few years. If you're interested in talking, you can find details in my profile. P.S. We really need a central place for this.
- barnaby 17y agoIsn't "single founder" just a result of not being able to get others to join your effort?
- pixcavator 17y agoI am a single founder. Still keep my day job (tenure is a beautiful thing!).
- gills 17y agoAye.
- kylebragger 17y agoI've founded a few small things on my own (done.io probably the most recent, and working on something called Forrst now). Something I've noticed is that while it's great just executing on stuff by myself, it can be a very lonely place, and it's definitely easier to slack or give up on something without someone else depending on you.
- davidw 17y agoI work on my own, although I'm not really working in 'startup mode' at the moment. More doing consulting as a day job and testing out various ideas to see if any of them stick.
- thinkbohemian 17y agoSingle founder working on http://www.whyspam.me http://www.whyspam.me right now. I like knowing how to do EVERYTHING that has anything to do with my application. I do design, coding, sysadmin, marketing, feedback studies. Its been a fun experience, but hopefully this will give me some street cred so i don't have to do it again. Maybe someone could do an article on best sources to outsource areas of web development in the future. As far as i'm concerned my site development has been free yes i have to pay server costs, etc. but i haven't had to outsource or hire anyone to do anything else yet. True i've spent quite a few of my own man-hours on the project but i consider the lessons learned and experience gained more than payback for that time. I think being a single founder can be great if you're just getting started, and your idea is manageable, the lessons you learn will be invaluable. That being said, in the future, I would like to be able to produce more in less time, and having some extra help would be very nice, especially now that I know what I'm doing!
- dangrossman 17y agoI've been a single founder for 6 years now. I've created half a dozen webapps and products in that time, some of which were eventually sold and others I still run today. I've never raised money -- a few VCs have contacted me but I knew there was no chance I'd be what they were looking for. I pay myself well, I work relatively little and outsource to contractors any work that makes sense to get help with. I used to do everything myself, but learning to give up a little control is a good thing. http://www.awio.com http://www.awio.com
- mishmax 17y agoCan you tell us a little more on what type of work you outsource and where you get your contractors from?
- dangrossman 17y agoMostly graphic design work. I pay designers for uncoded website and logo designs, advertising creatives and occasionally small graphics. I used to do the design myself, but I'm not very artistic and a good designer produces better work in far fewer hours, so I'm willing to pay for it. I've run some design contests on 99designs.com and keep in touch with the winning designers for future work, and also met some people through the SitePoint forums.
- umjames 17y agoWow, you're in Warminster? I'm near Ambler. Small world.
- Slashed 17y agoCan I ask how you sold some of your webapps? I mean, did some company bought them or you used such websites like flippa?
- cmalpeli 17y agoI too am a single founder - my site/business is http://www.podfeed.net http://www.podfeed.net
- Aegean 17y agoI am a single founder because I don't think I would find a founder that would work equally harder, and have equally deep experience on the subject or simply be equally relentlessly resourceful. I found that the only thing that makes me significantly upset in the startup is people I deal with. Working with another founder I bet would create a lot of conflicts.
- niels 17y agoPersonally I much prefer to be a single founder. If you have the technical skills, the rest can be learned. Not saying the business side of a startup is less important, just that it is easier and quicker to learn.
- coderdude 17y agoI'd be willing to bet that if you geeked-out on 'business' you'd find it's a much deeper subject than it appears to be from the perspective of a tech guy alone.
- inovica 17y agoI was a single founder when I started in 1994. Since then, I have had several businesses - none of them have been $10m businesses, but they have brought in great income. I grew two of them and then installed managers to take them forward - I still own them. Some thoughts from me: 1) I tried co-founders, but found that they didn't work as hard as me. Most people like to be lazy, so finding someone with the same work-ethic is difficult 2) I want to make decisions quickly and having a co-founder could slow that down for me 3) Employ people quickly who can help you. You don't need to give up part of your business to get good people. What motivates people is not just money - its often pride in a good job, good working conditions etc. I always run a very flexible in terms of time that people work. They work when they want and always get the job done 4) Don't be afraid to fire people. There are "givers" and "takers". I always fire takers as soon as I recognize them.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- fjabre 17y agoI was a single founder for a while. I farmed out a few projects and just happened to find a good coder and good person to start a company with.. Maybe it's something that should just happen organically? Has anyone met a cofounder at a mixer or cofounder matching site that worked out well?
- alanthonyc 17y agoMe. I'm working on my first, looking for help, but that good match is hard to find. So, are we going to do something about this (like a support group or something) this or will this just die out after this thread?
- jpao79 17y agoI have a fairly solid startup idea that I would like to pursue. Is it better to take the leap (i.e. should I give my 2 weeks notice from my current job), create a rough prototype of the product and then try to find co-founders based on the prototype? Or is better for me to try to find a co-founder that I can convince to help me with the idea and then take the leap (i.e. quit day job) to develop the prototype. What's hard for me is that without a 80% working prototype to share with potential co-founders, it's much harder to convince them that the concept is valid via power point slide decks, etc. From reviewing some history on Mint, it seems like Aaron Patzer went solo first, and then convinced people to join him based on his prototype. Are there other success stories like his?
- SapphireSun 17y agoIt might be a better idea to make a at least a specification/business plan first without quitting since it will force you to really think through the idea. There are always facets you may have missed that could kill it (or convince you even more). If you decide to take a leap... you have a spec!
- fleaflicker 17y agoThere are pluses and minuses. I think emotional stability is the most important personality prerequisite. Some advantages: - Zero communication overhead so you're more efficient. - Huge incentive to automate daily maintenance tasks. - You know the codebase inside out and can make massive changes (you understand the entire system). But that kind of thinking has also led me to screw up spectacularly so be careful.
- adrianwaj 17y agoIf you're a single founder, chances are the co-founder you'd take on most readily is another single founder.
- authentic 17y agosingle founder, for the simple reason that i like to be in control. imho, it is always a mistake to make somebody not strictly necessary for the business a founder. dishing out vanity co-founder titles at employee level equity stakes is debatable.
- edw519 17y agoSingle founder on my 4th start-up, my first alone. #1 - Two of us. A package for specialty manufacturers. I wrote the software, he sold and implemented it. We agreed to make it a product business, but he sold it as a service. Totally different animals. We were always behind and had no chance of building any equity that way. #2 - Four of us. A package for continuous manufacturers. I was one of 2 programmers along with a designer/analyst and a business guy. I should have been spending all of my time programming, but I spent 75% of it refereeing among the other 3. I kissed the ground when I left. #3 - Two of us. A package for job shops. Things were just taking off when he died. #4 - I'm taking everything I've learned from the other businesses and from my customers over the years and writing a self-service web app that builds enterprise quality systems for small & medium businesses. Single founder is the default. I'd gladly have a co-founder or two, but only if the fit is (almost) perfect. One of the many reasons I came to hn was the possibility of meeting co-founder(s). Who knows, it still may happen...
- j_baker 17y agoYour cofounder died? Wow, that must have been rough.
- _bn 17y agoI'm a single founder.
- aresant 17y agoThis thread reminds me of a quote a friend of mine says "If partners are so great, why didn't God have one?"
- plesn 17y agoWell, depends on the religion. (As an atheist, I'm still looking at my screen and waiting for my app to self-generate...)
- aaronblohowiak 17y agoHence the interest in genetic programming ;) Edit: Most systems seem to lack any sort of intelligent design
- rwhitman 17y agoI started a startup first, found a cofounder who subsequently completely ditched out when the economy sank us and we ran low on cash. Been running the product on fumes by myself ever since Though I've admittedly almost burned out on it. I certainly understand why almost all my advisors insist on the necessity of a cofounder. When you hit the lows and there's no one there to balance off of you can just hit rock bottom. I think a lot of the single founder success stories are guys that had a lot in their favor when they started. But maybe its also harder to kill a company when there's only one person. Like the business currently makes nothing but I could keep it alive as a hobby for 4 years and then sink money into it again when things change. Thats an advantage that a lot of startups don't have or think about, "slow cooking"...
- JangoSteve 17y agoI'm a single founder as well. I've learned the hard way that even those who initially seem to have the same drive and capabilities as I do usually don't in the long-run. I started my first two companies alone, then started a third as a partnership with three others where I was a silent partner, then closed down my first company, then brought in a co-founder for my second company and renamed it, then took over the third company (the partnership) through buy-outs, then desolved my partner for the second (renamed) company. It's kind of confusing, but the punchline is that every single co-founder who I at one time had a lot of confidence in has not held up their end (all of them admitting they hadn't at one point or another). That being said, I would love to start a company with someone who shares my drive and capability.
- Concours 17y agosingle founder working on the COD Network under http://www.mcsquare.me http://www.mcsquare.me , I never knew how hard it could be, sure I've read it before but never could I imagine it's this hard. You have to do everything, blog pitch, SEO , hacking, bug tracking , monetisation strategy, design , and and and.....this is my first startup, so I learn many things the hard way and it's mostly a learn by doing. I'd gladly have a co-founder sometimes...I just entered the beta and I'll probably at some point need someone to help me, but I guess I won't name him co-founder.
- jhg 17y agoA friend of mine did hamachi.cc from start to the point where it was acquired by another company with 4 million users. That took 1.5 years. He did everything - the UI design, coding network interface drivers, the server, marketing, support, ecom site and business development. So, yeah, it's doable, and, yeah, the workload is ungodly, and, no, he didn't want a co-founder.
- dhpmx 17y agoI'm a single founder - my site/business is http://www.vivapixel.com http://www.vivapixel.com
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- betterlabs 17y agoI couldn't agree more. I have been a Cofounder (with 4 others) once and a single founder twice (all 3 companies are profitable and alive). Based on my experience, I feel convinced that "unless" you start together as cofounders, its just very difficult/rare to "find" a cofounder who works out. There are a variety of reasons and I have seen some in my attempts at looking for one. Being a single founder is tough, but for those who can do it , it can work really well. There are some strategic downsides to it like decision making is based on just the single founder's gut/knowledge/experience, and its important that single founders understand the downsides and work around them.
- yoav 17y agoSingle founder here. http://Ear-Drum.org http://Ear-Drum.org - an RIA to truly engage in rich music immersion; promotion, collaboration, education, and community. I spent two years waiting for technology to catch up, refining the concept and business model according to how the industry was changing, and it's changed a lot. Just launched the beta a couple weeks ago. Being a single founder has forced me to engage and figure out how each segment in the company functions. You're doing everything so when you grow and start hiring people you'd have developed deeper insights into how to manage them, what kind of results you should expect and what challenges they face. Experiencing the nitty gritty of every facet of your business is crucial - I believe, to steer the ship competently. It's not just about knowing the people but the shoes you're asking them to fill and being a single founder there's no option but to learn that, especially on days you'd otherwise just pass the task off to someone else or share the burden. Innovation comes out of struggle. But it is a rollercoaster and it's equally important to have people in your life to pick you up when you hit the wall, and knock you down when you get too cocky. If those people can't relate to or can't appreciate the work you're doing then a lot of that support can be lost unless you can relate it to them and figure out how to get feedback. Being able to sell your idea to people outside your niche is a valuable skill to master in itself. As for me, the beta testers and other musicians tend to be hugely passionate and supportive, but that source of inspiration might be limited to my particular product. People might not get as excited at you when you're working on postagestamplickers.com. It's important to tell people what you're doing and discuss your idea with as many people as possible. It's both motivating and good for spotting holes in your bucket. I'm a firm believer in doing over talking, but when you're cold, tired, and lonely you'll be glad you're on a solid path and took the time to store some enthusiasm away for the hard times. I'm not explicitly for or against being a single founder, but in my case gaining a deep understanding of the company as a living breathing organism from every possible vantage point is absolutely the most important thing, which when it comes down to it, is about creating something organically and moving forward pragmatically. It keeps you from taking steps you're not ready to handle. If I had a co-founder certain things would be more fluid, but I'd miss out on a bunch of raw experience that will shape how I lead and venture in the future.
- 10ren 17y agopoint of view is worth 80 IQ. More founders == more points of view. If some of them coincide with the customers' points of view, so much the better...
- aohtsab 17y agoI've been struggling as to whether finding the right co-founder for my startup is worth the effort. I think I'm going to stick it out on my own, at least for now. EDIT: I originally said I was "on the verge" of bringing out my startup, but the language bothered me. I've given myself a two-week deadline to get the Web site off the ground, and a bit more time after that to get the business actually running. HN taught me I should push myself to get the startup moving, or it'll never happen, and that's what I'm doing now. =)
- david927 17y agoDavid Lean, the great film director, said you can only have one director on any film or you risk diluting the vision. I think the same is true for creative startups. I find that getting employees and giving them stock and calling them 'co-founder' is all fine as long as there's no confusion that they're to follow my lead. I think you can argue that all great startups are, in a sense, single founder startups. Woz for Apple, Gates for MS, etc.
- medianama 17y agoWoz for Apple... Really?
- david927 17y agoThe Apple II was a product of genius. After that it was imitating and copying, where the only added value was in marketing/colors/user experience. In music, people sometimes would ask "Lennon or McCartney?" to separate the wheat from the chaff. In hacker terms that question might be "Woz or Jobs?"
- ynniv 17y agoHell no! Woz and Jobs definitely co-founded Apple and build the Apple II. Woz never would have created a polished product on his own, and Jobs has never directly contributed to engineering. But you hire a lot of additional engineers, and not so many additional visionary leaders. Woz became less instrumental over time. As early as the first Macintosh release, Apple had become more Jobs than Woz, but that isn't saying much since Jobs soon left the company.
- david927 17y agoThe Apple II had little in terms of "polish". Back then it was just about the technology, and the Apple II had it in spades. The Mac was more Jobs than Woz, but as I mentioned, the Mac was almost stolen outright from Xerox PARC. visionary leaders Can you tell me what vision Jobs added to the Apple II?
- rs 17y agoSingle founder here (on xp-dev.com) It can be really, really, tough at times (I remember being on the verge of pulling my hair out a few months ago), and it can get a little lonely, but I decided to go solo as I really didn't find anyone that could had the same level of ambition and resonated well with my personality. though that can change in the future. thinking about a couple of new ideas that I will be looking for co-founders.
- barmstrong 17y agoThis comment on the article summed it up nicely for me: "I always thought it was contradictory that venture investors call out "conflict between founders" as the #1 reason for startups failing, yet they're always very reticent about funding a single-founder startup."
- easyeboy 17y agoSingle founders is fine, and I think it's something one should do, yet they should also get someone to help them. They don't need to be the founder, yet it might be a service provider, or someone in the industry. You can't do everything on your own. I'm working on my own startup, yet I've struggled to do a lot, and rely on a service provider to assist. There are plenty of those who do design, development, coding, or anything else who are better at it than you are. You may be great at some things, but there's only so much you can do. Sites like Elance are good, yet I would recommend you find someone through qualified word of mouth.