This is a very good point. Also, the mistakes you make at a big company tend to be very specialized to the product you are working on. When you start up on your

This is a very good point. Also, the mistakes you make at a big company tend to be very specialized to the product you are working on. When you start up on your own the range of mistakes you can make blows up by an order of magnitude. You start learning a lot, fast, but this also means you have to be able to take failure in your stride. A startup will fish out and highlight every single hole in your knowledge, skills and personality. You better have the optimism, the enthusiasm and the friends (partners) who'll help you deal with that. I think this might be one of the major reasons single person startups often fail.