3 ms·
Are you asking what are your chances of being successful with your startup as a solo entrepreneur, or what are your chances of being accepted into Y Combinator?
by jeromec 16y ago
Are you asking what are your chances of being successful with your startup as a solo entrepreneur, or what are your chances of being accepted into Y Combinator? If the former, I'd say you have about the same chances as you do partnering with other founders, which is not very good. Building a successful startup is hard whether or not you partner with others, and success depends much more on the founder(s) in question, more so than anything else. If you are asking the latter, Paul Graham specifically says chances are lower for getting accepted into YC for solo founders, because building a startup is too much work for one person. (I agree with that for the most part, but would qualify it by saying it depends on what exactly you're building, and even that is not always significant as, again, it depends more on the person) Interestingly, the example given as a successful application to YC was by the founder of Dropbox, who was a solo founder. I believe it is explained why this application was successful. I would suggest you read the "Applying Successfully" section. (more importantly, so does Paul Graham)
I don't know what you mean by adding a co-founder will add to your expenses. A co-founder should be working for equity in a project which may pay off later, the same as you are. If you're referring to the money successful applicants receive from YC that is not very much, only around 20K, and is meant to cover not much other than living expenses in San Francisco while building up a prototype enough to solicit more substantial funding later, after being introduced on Demo Day. I later realized this low funding amount was probably intentional, as it forces founders to be laser focus on finding/doing what it takes to make their product successful, as a money safety net is not there. The nice thing about that particular benefit is realizing that startups that don't make it into YC can be pressed in the same way.
- gdltec 16y agoWhat I mean by "adding a co-founder will add to my expenses" is that when my application gets approved by YC, chances are that I'll have to find a place not for one but for two or more people if I try to add co-founders right now. Yes the investment from YC is not much, and that is exactly why I would like to use it for anything that makes my startup successful and nothing else. As I mentioned on my question, I can offer sweat equity to other developers to help me out with this, they do not need to be co-founders, at least not in the beginning... unless they have other funds to invest in this company and all of their time :) - thanks for your input!
- jeromec 16y agoYes the investment from YC is not much, and that is exactly why I would like to use it for anything that makes my startup successful and nothing else. I think you're missing the point of YC if the only reason you're hesitant to bring on co-founders is to keep down living expenses deducted from initial YC funding. I'm sure PG might correct me if I'm wrong, but the philosophy of YC is that it's the founders themselves which determine a startup's chances of success. It's not saving a few thousand dollars on living expenses. You should be focused on getting your startup what it needs to be successful, and that's the right people first, money second, if at all. Of all the things YC provides the funding is probably the least significant thing influencing a startup's possible success.