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I’m not a huge fan of one person startups. Most of those are lifestyle businesses. I feel like having three cofounders is ideal. That way if two of you disagree

I’m not a huge fan of one person startups. Most of those are lifestyle businesses. I feel like having three cofounders is ideal. That way if two of you disagree about a major decision, the third founder can cast the tie-breaking vote. At the very least, you need two cofounders minimum so you can get a different perspective on problems (provided both of you are not similar in your thinking).

siquick 8y ago
You can have as many co-founders as you want but they will never ever know more than your customers.
SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
What exactly is wrong with lifestyle businesses? I know plenty of people having a fantastic time off the back of their lifestyle business.
DoreenMichele 8y ago
FYI: "I Love Lucy" was a lifestyle business. Lucille Ball was past 40 and wanted children with her musician husband who was constantly on the road. They dreamed up the show as a means to be able to work together and have sane hours that would allow them to be parents. The industry at the time was so grueling that it was less horrible to reinvent the industry than accept the status quo. At the time, TV was live broadcast twice a day, once for East Coast and once for West Coast. Archival quality footage did not exist. This made for grueling, horrible days for actors and crew. They invented modern TV as we know it. They pioneered many practices that are still in use today. In technical terms, they were the Star Wars of their day and completely revolutionized TV. Star Wars gave us modern movie special effects as we know it. I Love Lucy gave us modern TV as we know it. And Lucy got to see her husband regularly and got to start a family, which was all she really wanted out of it.
coldtea 8y ago
>I’m not a huge fan of one person startups. Most of those are lifestyle businesses. So? You say it like it's a bad thing. Back in the day we used to call "lifestyle businesses" as just businesses, and things like modern-day startups "BS moonshots with no real revenue model that will statistically fail, but a tiny minority will succeed (mostly by selling privacy) and continue to inspire suckers".
nathan_f77 8y ago
I have a one-person startup, and sure, it's more of a lifestyle business. But it's fully automated and provides passive income, so it's pretty awesome. (Not sure if that fits the definition of "lifestyle business".) I don't feel like I need a co-founder to get different perspectives; I have customers (first and foremost), friends, and plenty of internet communities where I can ask for advice and feedback (Stripe Atlas, Indie Hackers, HN, Reddit, etc.) I wouldn't trade my autonomy and independence for anything, and I'm really glad that I don't need to chase after an exit with a 10 year deadline. The other important point is that this business should give me a really solid base for pursuing even bigger ideas in the future. Hopefully I will be able to keep this running in the background, and then go after some bigger ideas where I do actually want to raise VC funding and hire a team, because I won't need to take a salary.
- rootsudo 8y ago
  That's amazing, and it is a lifestyle business. Peoples life, and income affect their lifestyle. What do you do?
  - nathan_f77 8y ago
    I'm working on a service that helps programmers set up PDF templates and fill them out with an API request: https://formapi.io https://formapi.io
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
  This guy gets it.
- TruffleLabs 8y ago
  “Passive income is earnings derived from a rental property, limited partnership or other enterprise in which a person is not actively involved“ If you have customers, employees, contracts, websites, marketing, invoices, etc, then there is involvement. Meaning it’s not so passive. ;)
  - nathan_f77 8y ago

siquick 8y ago

You can have as many co-founders as you want but they will never ever know more than your customers.

SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago

What exactly is wrong with lifestyle businesses? I know plenty of people having a fantastic time off the back of their lifestyle business.

DoreenMichele 8y ago

FYI: "I Love Lucy" was a lifestyle business. Lucille Ball was past 40 and wanted children with her musician husband who was constantly on the road. They dreamed up the show as a means to be able to work together and have sane hours that would allow them to be parents. The industry at the time was so grueling that it was less horrible to reinvent the industry than accept the status quo. At the time, TV was live broadcast twice a day, once for East Coast and once for West Coast. Archival quality footage did not exist. This made for grueling, horrible days for actors and crew. They invented modern TV as we know it. They pioneered many practices that are still in use today. In technical terms, they were the Star Wars of their day and completely revolutionized TV. Star Wars gave us modern movie special effects as we know it. I Love Lucy gave us modern TV as we know it. And Lucy got to see her husband regularly and got to start a family, which was all she really wanted out of it.

coldtea 8y ago

>I’m not a huge fan of one person startups. Most of those are lifestyle businesses. So? You say it like it's a bad thing. Back in the day we used to call "lifestyle businesses" as just businesses, and things like modern-day startups "BS moonshots with no real revenue model that will statistically fail, but a tiny minority will succeed (mostly by selling privacy) and continue to inspire suckers".

nathan_f77 8y ago

I have a one-person startup, and sure, it's more of a lifestyle business. But it's fully automated and provides passive income, so it's pretty awesome. (Not sure if that fits the definition of "lifestyle business".) I don't feel like I need a co-founder to get different perspectives; I have customers (first and foremost), friends, and plenty of internet communities where I can ask for advice and feedback (Stripe Atlas, Indie Hackers, HN, Reddit, etc.) I wouldn't trade my autonomy and independence for anything, and I'm really glad that I don't need to chase after an exit with a 10 year deadline. The other important point is that this business should give me a really solid base for pursuing even bigger ideas in the future. Hopefully I will be able to keep this running in the background, and then go after some bigger ideas where I do actually want to raise VC funding and hire a team, because I won't need to take a salary.

rootsudo 8y ago
That's amazing, and it is a lifestyle business. Peoples life, and income affect their lifestyle. What do you do?
- nathan_f77 8y ago
  I'm working on a service that helps programmers set up PDF templates and fill them out with an API request: https://formapi.io https://formapi.io
SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
This guy gets it.
TruffleLabs 8y ago
“Passive income is earnings derived from a rental property, limited partnership or other enterprise in which a person is not actively involved“ If you have customers, employees, contracts, websites, marketing, invoices, etc, then there is involvement. Meaning it’s not so passive. ;)
- nathan_f77 8y ago