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I'm a single founder and can only say the experience is rather grinding. I'm all up for the "If you don't help, at least don't get in the way" motto. I decided
by jmngomes 13y ago
I'm a single founder and can only say the experience is rather grinding.
I'm all up for the "If you don't help, at least don't get in the way" motto. I decided to pursue my current venture without a cofounder precisaly because I didn't find enough people that had both the skills and (understandably) the willingness to quit their nice paying jobs.
For me, it doesn't really make sense to have people aboard unless they add some real value to the two core functions of what a startup needs to do: building something and sell it. It's fine if you can't build it, but you better be damn good at selling it. Photo ops and "vision, mission and values" statements don't really justify a position on a bootstrapped startup that's trying to get a product out (this obviously varies, having well connected co-founders may make a lot of difference, some people are well worth their pay just because of their business karma).
The big problem of a solo venture, IMO, is that you find yourself doing these two roles simultaneously, which can be exhausting. It is for me, at least. I can do both rather well, but after a while I start finding it difficult to focus on designing a system for scalability, designing its database, reflecting on security, writing and testing Android code, building prospects lists and getting their contacts, getting meetings and attending them, fine-tuning your sales pitch and getting the man to write out a check. And I left out all the menial work that still has to be done.
By the end of the day, you're in agony not only because of that feature that is taking too long to build, but also for not getting enough customer meetings, because of not having enough positive answers and, mostly, because launch is (or should be) just around the corner and there's still a lot of stuff to be done and no one except you to take responsibility for it.
It's an emotional rollercoaster, so having the right partner seems like a good move.
- doobius 13y agoI agree that it is exhausting. I'm 2 months into a solo founded startup and the mental fatigue is not what I expected. Reflecting on it now, it certainly makes sense, but I just didn't know that it can be so taxing. I've told myself that if I make it to a next round of funding I need to find a partner stat.
- beat 13y agoTwo months? Just wait. I'm 9 months in solo, and day-jobbing to pay for the bootstrap. It's incredibly exhausting. If I could find a co-founder or two, I'd be thrilled. But finding someone really worth their weight hasn't happened yet. And I'm not going to just sit there and ignore this opportunity just because I can't find someone to hold my hand while I'm doing it. I'm going to get it out the door, even if I have to do every little thing myself. Having a co-founder is great. But not having one is no excuse to not work.
- w0rd-driven 13y agoI'd suspect there are a number of people in your shoes and in the shoes of this entire thread. I read these responses and thought "Hmm I wonder what it is they're doing. Maybe I could help or at least offer some brain power?" then realized clicking usernames revealed dick-all about any one of you. I had a thought "Why hasn't there been a matchmaking service for entrepreneurs?" A quick Google search gave me the answer: some already exist. You could try one of those. Alternatively you could use HN to help solicit help by using the about section or use posts like this to give some modicum of detail. When I see nothing in your about section and nothing in these messages that seem to explain the "what" you're trying to accomplish, I have a hard time believing you're really serious about your search. It's more likely that you have your own system of who you deal with or you're just passively searching, severely. That's all perfectly fine, just not something I would be doing in either of your shoes.
- doobius 13y agoIt might be a poor idea, but I've planned to hold off on actively searching until I get more funding
- w0rd-driven 13y agoI took comments on a post to mean "I'm ready for" when I should've realized a lot of what we do as people is talk ourselves up to something. I wouldn't consider it to be a poor idea at all. I was primarily trying to offer suggestions to help with passively searching when the need arose but I couldn't get around being specific, realizing it could partially sound mean or negative when that wasn't what I was going for at all.
- AznHisoka 13y agoAre you doing it full time or while on a day job?
- jmngomes 13y agoFull time, I quit my job to dedicate myselff to this after a few rounds of discussing it and getting initial validation from both my targets (yes, it's a marketplace business, even worse to do it alone)
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]