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It would be great if someone started an incubator devoted to single founders, specifically tailoring the program to address some of the associated shortcomings.
by johnrob 15y ago
It would be great if someone started an incubator devoted to single founders, specifically tailoring the program to address some of the associated shortcomings. Perhaps it could also be a fertile ground to merge any compatible founders into teams.
If any angel(s) are looking for a niche in the incubator "market", this would be a pretty good one. Real value can be created if someone can increase the chances of success for single founders.
- fletchowns 15y agoWho is the poster child for the single founder success story?
- jazzychad 15y agoIn recent history, Mint.com is the poster child, however there is still an open question about whether he sold too early. Lots of people like to point out Drew Houston of Dropbox as another single-founder success story (and it is!), but he did have a co-founder by the time they presented at Demo Day (if not before YC started, I can't remember which). However, he did apply as a single-founder. Here is his YC S07 application: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27532820/app.html http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27532820/app.html
- vynch 15y agothat application is so well written!
- benatkin 15y agoWolfram Research is one. Stephen Wolfram gave a talk at the first Startup School for Hackers.
- byoung2 15y agoPierre Omidyar was a single founder when he started eBay in 1995. He brought in employee #1 (Jeffrey Skoll), in 1996, and Meg Whitman in 1998. Jeff Bezos was a solo founder when he started Amazon in 1994. Employee #1 (Shel Kaphan) was brought on before incorporation, but says Jeff was the founder (http://www.geekwire.com/2011/meet-shel-kaphan-amazoncom-employee-1 http://www.geekwire.com/2011/meet-shel-kaphan-amazoncom-empl...)
- molecularbutter 15y agoBrilliant, I was not aware of these facts.
- byoung2 15y agoMore recently, Omar Hamoui was a solo founder of AdMob, which sold to Google for $750 million Andrew Mason was a solo founder of Groupon, started with $1 million seed money from a former employer.
- ethnomusicolog 15y agoDo we all realize that Mark Z... is actually a single founder ?!
- byoung2 15y agoThat's up for debate. Zuckerberg did early hacking on his own, but he started the company with Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, and Chris Hughes.
- johnrob 15y agoThis just showed up today (mailchimp buys tinyletter): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2947625 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2947625 The single founder was Philip Kaplan (although he's not you're average single founder).
- prabodh 15y agoDropbox was single founder when accepted into YC
- jpdoctor 15y ago> It would be great if someone started an incubator devoted to single founders But then how would the VCs play the founders off one another?
- jazzychad 15y agoWhat? VCs don't play founders off one another... not reputable ones, anyway.
- jpdoctor 15y ago> not reputable ones, anyway. You're either a VC or under 30. Edit: There is clearly not a lot of gray hair on this site.
- jazzychad 15y agoYour comment history indicates that you like to be contrary and/or snarky, so I'm not replying to you, but for others reading this thread... there are actually good VCs out there (and yes, there are a lot of bad ones).
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- rdl 15y agoThere are definitely investors who do this kind of thing to business partners, but they are usually non silicon valley, non tech investors (like a local car dealership owner who is investing in a restaurant). It is really rare among professional investors. It might happen again at the private equity level, where established businesses are being restructured, but there you could argue the value is not with the founders in all cases, or with management. I have little experience at that scale though. In a startup, the founders, and their relationship with each other and the company, is probably the biggest asset. If an investor doesn't like the team, he just won't invest at all.
- epi0Bauqu 15y agoI don't have the time or funds for an incubator yet, but I have helped fund two single founders so far, and am open to doing more.
- demione 15y agoI'm a single founder who's had success, and am toying around with the idea of starting an incubator. Wouldn't mind a partner this time around -- the single founder way is great for utmost control but sometimes you need someone to help you see the forest for the trees.
- ed209 15y agoas a single founder (non-tech to boot!) I'd love to see that - but why limit yourself to a sub-batch of entrepreneurs? Why not just be a single-founder friendly incubator? There are benefits to targeting a niche, common problems through the group, easier to market the incubator to a group, differentiation to other incubators. From my point of view I would love to see a go-to place for single founders, if there's one thing we could use it's others to talk to where friends/family just don't cut it!
- joshuamerrill 15y agoI think this sounds great. While I'm aware of a couple studies that show single-founder companies being less successful than multiple-founder companies, I think the problem is being exacerbated by a self-fulfilling prophecy created by investors that single-founder companies cannot succeed.