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The VC industry biases on historical outcomes, and their own lived experiences--like any process that involves humans. The author also mentions starting a techn
by yc-kraln 4y ago
The VC industry biases on historical outcomes, and their own lived experiences--like any process that involves humans. The author also mentions starting a technical company without any technical expertise, and a few other questionable things which aren't just questionable because of prevailing common knowledge but questionable because it's unsupported also by the research they are citing.
The take away, even assuming that "on paper" solo founding is better, if you want to start a VC-backed company (or a company which will eventually raise VC money) this really isn't the topic to get quixotic about and you should get at least one co-founder so you can improve your chances.
A VC-backed company, as opposed to a kickstarter project, is a company which starts from zero and then is worth a billion dollars in five years. That involves exponential growth and stress which, unless you've attempted it, you can't even imagine.
Potential solo founders: knock yourselves out, but when you've gotten your 100th "no" and your cash reserves are running on fumes, this author and their flawed research paper they are citing out of context will be of little comfort.
- lioeters 4y agoI think what GP is implying is that it's a self-fulfilling prophecy: VCs are biased against solo founders because historically and culturally they've been overlooked/undersupported by VCs.
- threeseed 4y agoBut again. The VC industry is biased on historical outcomes which itself is biased on historical outcomes. So what the VC industry does or has done is not a relevant source of objective data. I do agree that solo founders should probably find a co-founder in order to raise but that has nothing to do with potential success and everything to do with optimising for what VCs expect.