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> Is a bad cofounder relationship worse than being a solo founder? Why do people constantly demonize single founders? (Just to be clear, I'm pointing my finger

> Is a bad cofounder relationship worse than being a solo founder? Why do people constantly demonize single founders? (Just to be clear, I'm pointing my finger at the person asking the question, not Kat or YC). Sure, startups are hard and it's always better to have 2-3 people in the founding team, but there are valid reasons people choose to go solo. Seriously though, YC should write a post to discuss the single founder situation and what they have observed over the years and share any relevant numbers to go along with the post.

kyleschiller 10y ago
I'm not endorsing this, but here's PG's explanation (which likely influenced others) http://paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html http://paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html
wj 10y ago
I agree that there seems to be a stigma in the startup echo chamber around single founders and as one I find it frustrating. The reason am I a single founder is that while I have always been a computer nerd my friends and colleagues were not so the number of programmers in my immediate network is effectively zero. Secondly, the people that I would have chosen to start a company with in my industry are former colleagues and were not in a position to leave their jobs for something new with zero pay. (We would not have been allowed to build this company in our freetime as there would have been too much overlap with the employer.) I imagine my situation is pretty common and the way out of it is to bootstrap to enough profitability to be able to provide salary to co-founders or to hire help. But at that point I wouldn't need investors. :) My good days are ones where I end the day with more todos that I started with because that means I made progress and now have new challenges ahead. So I continue to appreciate what having a cofounder (or even an employee) could mean for me. Because of that new appreciation if I was investing my own money I would also be taking a long and hard look at companies with a single founder and would likely pass on many of them for that reason. Creating a successful company is incredibly hard and I believe having a second person increases the chances for success. I love the quote that is along the lines of "All it takes is one sufficiently motivated individual to change the world." I hope that is true for us solofounders.

kyleschiller 10y ago

I'm not endorsing this, but here's PG's explanation (which likely influenced others) http://paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html http://paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html

wj 10y ago

I agree that there seems to be a stigma in the startup echo chamber around single founders and as one I find it frustrating. The reason am I a single founder is that while I have always been a computer nerd my friends and colleagues were not so the number of programmers in my immediate network is effectively zero. Secondly, the people that I would have chosen to start a company with in my industry are former colleagues and were not in a position to leave their jobs for something new with zero pay. (We would not have been allowed to build this company in our freetime as there would have been too much overlap with the employer.) I imagine my situation is pretty common and the way out of it is to bootstrap to enough profitability to be able to provide salary to co-founders or to hire help. But at that point I wouldn't need investors. :) My good days are ones where I end the day with more todos that I started with because that means I made progress and now have new challenges ahead. So I continue to appreciate what having a cofounder (or even an employee) could mean for me. Because of that new appreciation if I was investing my own money I would also be taking a long and hard look at companies with a single founder and would likely pass on many of them for that reason. Creating a successful company is incredibly hard and I believe having a second person increases the chances for success. I love the quote that is along the lines of "All it takes is one sufficiently motivated individual to change the world." I hope that is true for us solofounders.