4 ms·

The post begins by quoting me at length, and ends by dismissing what I say as "rhetoric," and I'm the one making this a conflict? If this had just been the usu

by pg 14y ago

The post begins by quoting me at length, and ends by dismissing what I say as "rhetoric," and I'm the one making this a conflict? If this had just been the usual post arguing from anecdotal evidence that it was no problem to be a single founder, I wouldn't even have responded.

tptacek 14y ago
I think you shouldn't have, because I am atypically alert to digs at you and I didn't detect anything like what you describe. It is the prevailing wisdom that founders need cofounders, and he was just trying to put that in perspective. I'd put money on it: He's probably actually an admirer of yours.
clarky07 14y ago
I'm with tptacek here. I don't see anything was particularly inflammatory, I just thought it was an encouragement post to solo-founders. Going to your quote at the beginning, I think the low points part is really true, (as a single founder, I know it's really hard). The vote of no confidence from your friends I think is way off base though. Not everyone is at the same point in life, and many if not most 20-somethings don't aren't in a good enough financial position to not have an income for a significant period of time. We just got done getting huge loans to go to college, some get married, some have kids. It's not just, well he couldn't convince his friends to quit their mortgage paying jobs to do a startup with him his idea must suck.
- cardine 14y ago
  I agree with the "vote of no confidence" being completely off base. If I have people wanting to be a cofounder than that means I probably am in a position where I do not need a cofounder (as my company is doing well enough that people are asking me for equity). There are many good arguments for why having a single cofounder might be bad, but this one seems just plain wrong.
clarky07 14y ago
On another note, I think he's also pointing out that success for a single startup founder != success for YC. Treehouse, at 3 mil rev for a solo founder, I'd consider him pretty successful. I suspect he is now pretty well set whether it gets huge or not. That wouldn't come close to moving the needle at YC though. Maybe it's a lot more likely for co-founders to make it huge, Apple, Google, etc. His post is pointing out that you don't have to be Apple to be a hugely successful startup and to be really well off personally. YC is looking for the next Apple, but Joe Schmoe startup founder is just looking to not have to worry about their mortgage.
brudgers 14y ago
I read it along the lines of: (eql yccompany astartup) Nil (equal yccompany startup) T In the wake of the application cycle, it has a bit of the "you can still be awesome" about it.

by pg 14y ago

tptacek 14y ago

I think you shouldn't have, because I am atypically alert to digs at you and I didn't detect anything like what you describe. It is the prevailing wisdom that founders need cofounders, and he was just trying to put that in perspective. I'd put money on it: He's probably actually an admirer of yours.

clarky07 14y ago

I'm with tptacek here. I don't see anything was particularly inflammatory, I just thought it was an encouragement post to solo-founders. Going to your quote at the beginning, I think the low points part is really true, (as a single founder, I know it's really hard). The vote of no confidence from your friends I think is way off base though. Not everyone is at the same point in life, and many if not most 20-somethings don't aren't in a good enough financial position to not have an income for a significant period of time. We just got done getting huge loans to go to college, some get married, some have kids. It's not just, well he couldn't convince his friends to quit their mortgage paying jobs to do a startup with him his idea must suck.

cardine 14y ago
I agree with the "vote of no confidence" being completely off base. If I have people wanting to be a cofounder than that means I probably am in a position where I do not need a cofounder (as my company is doing well enough that people are asking me for equity). There are many good arguments for why having a single cofounder might be bad, but this one seems just plain wrong.

clarky07 14y ago

On another note, I think he's also pointing out that success for a single startup founder != success for YC. Treehouse, at 3 mil rev for a solo founder, I'd consider him pretty successful. I suspect he is now pretty well set whether it gets huge or not. That wouldn't come close to moving the needle at YC though. Maybe it's a lot more likely for co-founders to make it huge, Apple, Google, etc. His post is pointing out that you don't have to be Apple to be a hugely successful startup and to be really well off personally. YC is looking for the next Apple, but Joe Schmoe startup founder is just looking to not have to worry about their mortgage.

brudgers 14y ago

I read it along the lines of: (eql yccompany astartup) Nil (equal yccompany startup) T In the wake of the application cycle, it has a bit of the "you can still be awesome" about it.