3 ms·

Who is the poster child for the single founder success story?

jazzychad 15y ago
In 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 ago
  that application is so well written!
benatkin 15y ago
Wolfram Research is one. Stephen Wolfram gave a talk at the first Startup School for Hackers.
byoung2 15y ago
Pierre 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 ago
  Brilliant, I was not aware of these facts.
  - byoung2 15y ago
    More 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 ago
      Do we all realize that Mark Z... is actually a single founder ?!
      - byoung2 15y ago
        That'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 ago
This 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 ago
Dropbox was single founder when accepted into YC

In 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 ago
that application is so well written!

benatkin 15y ago

Wolfram Research is one. Stephen Wolfram gave a talk at the first Startup School for Hackers.

byoung2 15y ago

Pierre 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 ago
Brilliant, I was not aware of these facts.
- byoung2 15y ago
  More 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 ago
    Do we all realize that Mark Z... is actually a single founder ?!
    - byoung2 15y ago
      That'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 ago

This 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 ago

Dropbox was single founder when accepted into YC