8 ms·

Solo.im – A single founder peer group

160 points by matthiaswh 13y ago

minimaxir 13y ago
"One way to do this is to join a mastermind group that acts like a team of trusted advisors." There's keeping a group small to ensure quality, but then there's the more critical issue of having quality people in that group, which this service does not ensure. Dunbar's number is not magic.
OnyeaboAduba 13y ago
Great concept, I will signup tonight.
gregormck 13y ago
Good points and you are correct (I'm the creator of solo.im) The group is full of founders who all have different experiences and knowledge to pass on. "Quality" can be subject for sure, but I believe founders can help other founders regardless of where they are in the process of starting / running a business. The big thing is contribution. solo.im / mastermind groups is just one thing of many you can get involved in and get help from when you are a founder.
- tlongren 13y ago
  Think it sounds awesome. Signing up!
- wj 13y ago
  I applied about three weeks ago but haven't heard anything as to whether I was accepted. I'm sure you have a backlog of applications so I'm not sweating it but would love to hear one way or another soon!
  - dclara 13y ago
    Really appreciate your information. Looks like the rest of the web pages are not ready yet. It depends on how many people sign up. A list of signed up solos should be posted for people to choose from, I guess.
    - gregormck 13y ago
      @wj - shoot me an email gregor at buildtracks.com @dclara - yep
mikkel 13y ago
Great idea - I've signed up. Of course filtering out inactive members is going to be important in the future. I love the barebones landing page + signup form as the MVP.
crazygringo 13y ago
I love the idea, but there needs to be more information. Where is this geographically? Are there separate SF and NY groups? Additional ones? Do they meet in person? How often? Or is this all via webcam and e-mail? Is this more mentoring or support? More one-on-one or group? What kind of a time commitment are we talking about? Is the 150-member limit per geographic area, or global? Why 150, if it's all groups of 4-8 anyways? I understand what you are, but I don't have the slightest idea what you do.
- gregormck 13y ago
  * Mastermind groups are run on Skype or Google Hangouts * It's a global group * We have group owners (volunteers) who start groups and organise them to suit their goals and timezones * It's mostly a tech / web audience * It's more support and accountability than mentoring * Mastermind groups are run bi-weekly (depends on the group owner). We're looking to introduce weekly mastermind groups on specific subjects i.e. PR, SEO, pricing, partnerships, etc. * We also include a weekly summary / round up of discussions that have taken place in the group that week and on Mondays people post their goals for the week, which other people comment on / offer help / ask questions
  - drcode 13y ago
    I think your idea has enormous potential, don't screw it up :-) To quote General Rumsfeld, a solo founder usually has a lot of "unknown unknowns" because a single human being is likely to have a lot of skill gaps that they themselves are not fully aware of. Many solo founders could probably see an order of magnitude in the success of their products if a bunch of peers give suggestions like "Dude, this page needs a link for tweeting your completed images" or "You need a call for action on this page" or "This font makes your web page look like it was created in 1998" The dynamic of a startup is very different when you have 2-3 founders, in that case it is probably better to work as a team to try and resolve these types of problems, but for a solo founder a semi-confidential outside opinion could be valuable. Asking "real-world friends" about these types of things doesn't really work most of the time because they may not understand startup tech and because polite society usually follows the rule "If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all."
shaaaaawn 13y ago
This webpage is not available error :(
soneca 13y ago
I am a single founder and I was really tempted to apply. But I decided I won't. I read all the copy, it is interesting. I went all the way filling the form, until the last question before the submit button. And there it was, the one question that made me (i) stop, (ii) wonder if this was for me and (iii) decide it wasn´t. (i) What made me stop? The field was asking my Google+ account. They say the community will run on it, that is optional for now, but I will have to have one. As I don't have and don't one, I stopped right there to think if it would be worthy. (ii) What made me wonder? Why impose such a burden to enter? I start wondering why they would to put barriers on who gets in, not only about Google+ by now, but submit an application that will be analyzed? They will have no idea who are the best people to get in through this questions. The whole thing started to look like a random selection disguised as an exclusive elite fancy club. (iii) Why I decided not to apply? Because I came to the conclusion that such a community should be open to enter, and the mechanisms to decide how one fits the community or not should be actual contributions on it, not a random, snob bouncer. So for now, I hope someone improves the concept (that promises a lot of value to me), but implement it in a more open way.
- oscargrouch 13y ago
  Soneca, i've saw in the other thread about stackoverflow that you are from Brazil.. i'm also trying to bootstrap a thing on my own.. and i'm brazilian too.. So maybe we can start this open group.. with two? maybe add more people later? i dont know if i will help you out.. maybe i give you bad ideas.. rsrs.. who knows?! but at least we can try??!
  - soneca 13y ago
    sure, my email is on my profile. Let's talk about it...
    - fredguth 13y ago
      Also a solo founder from Brazil. May I join?
      - 13y ago
skywhopper 13y ago
The photo at the top of the page gives me some majorly sweaty palms.
- mdda 13y ago
  I can see my apartment! (view looks like it's from the Empire State Building, NYC, looking East)
theonewolf 13y ago
How does pruning occur? It says it is limited to 150 people. Presumably over time you'd want new people/refresh the ranks. How do people get evaluated and eventually (in cases that need it) forcibly dropped?
- gregormck 13y ago
  Thanks - good question. In terms of "forcibly dropped" - the group is run free of charge, so contribution is key. No contribution = "forcibly dropped". Contribution means taking part in a mastermind group, discussions or asking / giving help. On evaluation, I'd like to move to a democratic way of evaluating it where the group or a group within the group decide. I believe that's what http://yec.co/ http://yec.co/ do.
tsheng 13y ago
Are you all alone with your company on Valentine's day? Well have I got the group for you!
- gregormck 13y ago
  Brilliant +100
ppymou 13y ago
Just signed up. I would love if you changed the signup form to use textarea rather than input though...
kevg 13y ago
Thanks for making this. I signed up and entered a pretty long answer to "Tell us more about your business / idea." After I confirmed my email, I reviewed my answers, and that answer was cut off (looks like at 255 characters). I recommend adding a maxlength to input boxes that have limits and noting those limits on the page.
beat 13y ago
It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. As a solo founder, I know my biggest concern with any online community is time/reward ratio. I've cut myself off from several online communities to buy more time for my work. (I stick with HN and Quora because the reward level is very high)
volaski 13y ago
Thank you for not making a parallax scrolling website. I first thought as soon as I started scrolling the image will be covered with some text, and then some other image starts showing up in the background
omnisci 13y ago
Love the idea, I'm a single founder as well and tend to talk to my poor GF about my issues (luckily, she is awesome :) ). Looking forward to see where this goes.
- chrissyb 13y ago
  Haha this post could have been written by me. Perhaps I should sign up!
- waynepierson 13y ago
  I too could have said the exact same thing. My gf is listed on my my business continuity plan because whether she likes it or not she knows everything about my business (she is also awesome, luckily). I applied, interested to see what it's like and how I could help and be helped.
decentrality 13y ago
@gregormck - emailed you about giving you @soloandproud as linked at solo.im Went to follow it on twitter and saw it wasn't registered. Held it for you & ready to transfer.
- decentrality 13y ago
  Well, @gregormck, when you blocked @soloandproud on twitter, I got the message. I deactivated the account, unenrolled from solo.im, and will leave this attempt to be of service in the bitbucket.
ninjakeyboard 13y ago
It's a good idea. G+ was a barrier but I filled out my profile and submitted (even though not required).
davidw 13y ago
People interested in this kind of thing, but a bit more open, may appreciate this site: http://discuss.bootstrapped.fm/ http://discuss.bootstrapped.fm/ There are a number of us from HN there - the kind of people really interested in bootstrapped startups.
- derefr 13y ago
  I'm not sure this is at all the same thing. "One-founder" and "bootstrapped" are orthogonal. You can be a multi-founder bootstrapped startup, or a one-founder VC-money startup.
Ryel 13y ago
I thought the google+ question was rather unimportant so I used the opportunity to ask about free snacks?
Mz 13y ago
I previously tried to start a posterous-based med tech discussion group, right before posterous announced it was pulling the plug. I am still interested in talking with others about that type of thing. I am open to suggestions as to platform, etc.
woohoo7676 13y ago
I just signed up - seconding the comments about using text area for longer answers. Edit: received the confirmation email, just took a little longer
mladenkovacevic 13y ago
I am always worried that these things are just acting as "idea harvesters" ... so while these single founders are discussing strategies and tactics.. some company out there is selecting the best one to build an MVP and pitch to an investor. The fear is completely unfounded, but I guess that's how my mind works. EDIT: Having said all that, I am still waiting for my confirmation email.
- rwillmer 13y ago
  I'm one of the early people on solo.im; all I can say is that it hasn't felt like that to me. Just a really useful supportive group of people who are out there doing it, willing to share our experience. Rachel P.S. And I don't buy the idea of "idea harvesters" anyway. Ideas are easy; ask any founder. Execution is the hard bit...
  - futurist 13y ago
    Why are there so many of the same kinds of apps if ideas are easy? I think "idea harvesting" is definitely something to be concerned about.
    - wj 13y ago
      Didn't you just answer your question with the question? There are so many of the same kinds of apps because everybody came up with the same idea.
      - whatusername 13y ago
        To be fair -- those "Flappy X" apps on the various app stores were not "everybody coming up with the same idea". Not that flappy bird was in any way original -- but there is a lot of copying.
- dogweather 13y ago
  Ideas aren't worth anything.
ritchiem 13y ago
Sounds great I was just having a bad 10days. So need a kick in the right direction that I'm hoping this sort of thing could offer.
_zen 13y ago
Great landing page photo, I had it as my desktop a few months ago. http://500px.com/photo/43639202 http://500px.com/photo/43639202
zavi 13y ago
So, a meetup.com with selectivity and a better looking website.
jankins 13y ago
I'm not a G+ user but am interested in joining this group. I filled out the form without realizing that the whole thing is run over G+, so I put in my own website instead, assuming the only reason you were asking for G+ was to find out more about each applicant. I think some explanation about why the G+ link is on the application would be helpful.
- wj 13y ago
  I assumed it was that the masterminds were going to be done over Google hangouts but I could be wrong.
jasonkester 13y ago
Excellent timing. Over the last few months, I've been finding less and less things here at HN that have anything to do with building/running/growing a software business. I scan down the entire homepage and there's just nothing to click on anymore. It just looks like /r/programming or Slashdot used to look. Something new will emerge pretty soon to fill the void, and our demographic will slowly find their way there, sadly leaving this place to all those folks currently having so much fun arguing about the time-wastish stuff on the front page. If this has a chance of being that place, sign me up.
- lifeisstillgood 13y ago
  normally I ignore this "HN is not what it used to be comment". But this time there is a "something else" to compare to. And we have lost something on the front page - but Ask is still vibrant. Now I must go ignore myself
h1karu 13y ago
Could this be a fishing expedition to troll in new product ideas ? I've heard some of the lean startup people are into building fake landing pages to collect interesting data. These type of well designed single form pages are getting easier and easier to build..
- wj 13y ago
  It could be but that would be an awfully cynical view. Sometimes it is okay to give people the benefit of the doubt. I am interested to hear more about what you have heard about. Doing what you're suggesting seems like a fool's errand.
almosnow 13y ago
Gregor, get me in ... Mail is <HN username>@gmail
chacham15 13y ago
I reaaaaaaaly like the idea. I have soo many questions I need help with from really basic things to complicated technical things. The main problem I had with the site is: "The solo.im currency is contribution. No contribution = no membership." I'm not in a place where I can contribute. Seriously, I am probably the last person who should be giving advice. I'm on my first startup and havent even launched yet! More than that, I work about every day of the week more hours than I care to admit to. I just dont think that I would have the time necessary to do justice to the others and not be just a leecher.
arikrak 13y ago
I figure it could be a way to meet a cofounder..
gmq 13y ago
I signed up but I haven't got anything after the confirmation email. Is there a waiting list?

160 points by matthiaswh 13y ago

"One way to do this is to join a mastermind group that acts like a team of trusted advisors." There's keeping a group small to ensure quality, but then there's the more critical issue of having quality people in that group, which this service does not ensure. Dunbar's number is not magic.

OnyeaboAduba 13y ago

Great concept, I will signup tonight.

gregormck 13y ago

Good points and you are correct (I'm the creator of solo.im) The group is full of founders who all have different experiences and knowledge to pass on. "Quality" can be subject for sure, but I believe founders can help other founders regardless of where they are in the process of starting / running a business. The big thing is contribution. solo.im / mastermind groups is just one thing of many you can get involved in and get help from when you are a founder.

tlongren 13y ago
Think it sounds awesome. Signing up!
wj 13y ago
I applied about three weeks ago but haven't heard anything as to whether I was accepted. I'm sure you have a backlog of applications so I'm not sweating it but would love to hear one way or another soon!
- dclara 13y ago
  Really appreciate your information. Looks like the rest of the web pages are not ready yet. It depends on how many people sign up. A list of signed up solos should be posted for people to choose from, I guess.
  - gregormck 13y ago
    @wj - shoot me an email gregor at buildtracks.com @dclara - yep

mikkel 13y ago

Great idea - I've signed up. Of course filtering out inactive members is going to be important in the future. I love the barebones landing page + signup form as the MVP.

crazygringo 13y ago

I love the idea, but there needs to be more information. Where is this geographically? Are there separate SF and NY groups? Additional ones? Do they meet in person? How often? Or is this all via webcam and e-mail? Is this more mentoring or support? More one-on-one or group? What kind of a time commitment are we talking about? Is the 150-member limit per geographic area, or global? Why 150, if it's all groups of 4-8 anyways? I understand what you are, but I don't have the slightest idea what you do.

gregormck 13y ago
* Mastermind groups are run on Skype or Google Hangouts * It's a global group * We have group owners (volunteers) who start groups and organise them to suit their goals and timezones * It's mostly a tech / web audience * It's more support and accountability than mentoring * Mastermind groups are run bi-weekly (depends on the group owner). We're looking to introduce weekly mastermind groups on specific subjects i.e. PR, SEO, pricing, partnerships, etc. * We also include a weekly summary / round up of discussions that have taken place in the group that week and on Mondays people post their goals for the week, which other people comment on / offer help / ask questions
- drcode 13y ago
  I think your idea has enormous potential, don't screw it up :-) To quote General Rumsfeld, a solo founder usually has a lot of "unknown unknowns" because a single human being is likely to have a lot of skill gaps that they themselves are not fully aware of. Many solo founders could probably see an order of magnitude in the success of their products if a bunch of peers give suggestions like "Dude, this page needs a link for tweeting your completed images" or "You need a call for action on this page" or "This font makes your web page look like it was created in 1998" The dynamic of a startup is very different when you have 2-3 founders, in that case it is probably better to work as a team to try and resolve these types of problems, but for a solo founder a semi-confidential outside opinion could be valuable. Asking "real-world friends" about these types of things doesn't really work most of the time because they may not understand startup tech and because polite society usually follows the rule "If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all."

shaaaaawn 13y ago

This webpage is not available error :(

soneca 13y ago

I am a single founder and I was really tempted to apply. But I decided I won't. I read all the copy, it is interesting. I went all the way filling the form, until the last question before the submit button. And there it was, the one question that made me (i) stop, (ii) wonder if this was for me and (iii) decide it wasn´t. (i) What made me stop? The field was asking my Google+ account. They say the community will run on it, that is optional for now, but I will have to have one. As I don't have and don't one, I stopped right there to think if it would be worthy. (ii) What made me wonder? Why impose such a burden to enter? I start wondering why they would to put barriers on who gets in, not only about Google+ by now, but submit an application that will be analyzed? They will have no idea who are the best people to get in through this questions. The whole thing started to look like a random selection disguised as an exclusive elite fancy club. (iii) Why I decided not to apply? Because I came to the conclusion that such a community should be open to enter, and the mechanisms to decide how one fits the community or not should be actual contributions on it, not a random, snob bouncer. So for now, I hope someone improves the concept (that promises a lot of value to me), but implement it in a more open way.

oscargrouch 13y ago
Soneca, i've saw in the other thread about stackoverflow that you are from Brazil.. i'm also trying to bootstrap a thing on my own.. and i'm brazilian too.. So maybe we can start this open group.. with two? maybe add more people later? i dont know if i will help you out.. maybe i give you bad ideas.. rsrs.. who knows?! but at least we can try??!
- soneca 13y ago
  sure, my email is on my profile. Let's talk about it...
  - fredguth 13y ago
    Also a solo founder from Brazil. May I join?
    - 13y ago

skywhopper 13y ago

The photo at the top of the page gives me some majorly sweaty palms.

mdda 13y ago
I can see my apartment! (view looks like it's from the Empire State Building, NYC, looking East)

theonewolf 13y ago

How does pruning occur? It says it is limited to 150 people. Presumably over time you'd want new people/refresh the ranks. How do people get evaluated and eventually (in cases that need it) forcibly dropped?

gregormck 13y ago
Thanks - good question. In terms of "forcibly dropped" - the group is run free of charge, so contribution is key. No contribution = "forcibly dropped". Contribution means taking part in a mastermind group, discussions or asking / giving help. On evaluation, I'd like to move to a democratic way of evaluating it where the group or a group within the group decide. I believe that's what http://yec.co/ http://yec.co/ do.

tsheng 13y ago

Are you all alone with your company on Valentine's day? Well have I got the group for you!

gregormck 13y ago
Brilliant +100

ppymou 13y ago

Just signed up. I would love if you changed the signup form to use textarea rather than input though...

kevg 13y ago

Thanks for making this. I signed up and entered a pretty long answer to "Tell us more about your business / idea." After I confirmed my email, I reviewed my answers, and that answer was cut off (looks like at 255 characters). I recommend adding a maxlength to input boxes that have limits and noting those limits on the page.

beat 13y ago

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. As a solo founder, I know my biggest concern with any online community is time/reward ratio. I've cut myself off from several online communities to buy more time for my work. (I stick with HN and Quora because the reward level is very high)

volaski 13y ago

Thank you for not making a parallax scrolling website. I first thought as soon as I started scrolling the image will be covered with some text, and then some other image starts showing up in the background

omnisci 13y ago

Love the idea, I'm a single founder as well and tend to talk to my poor GF about my issues (luckily, she is awesome :) ). Looking forward to see where this goes.

chrissyb 13y ago
Haha this post could have been written by me. Perhaps I should sign up!
waynepierson 13y ago
I too could have said the exact same thing. My gf is listed on my my business continuity plan because whether she likes it or not she knows everything about my business (she is also awesome, luckily). I applied, interested to see what it's like and how I could help and be helped.

decentrality 13y ago

@gregormck - emailed you about giving you @soloandproud as linked at solo.im Went to follow it on twitter and saw it wasn't registered. Held it for you & ready to transfer.

decentrality 13y ago
Well, @gregormck, when you blocked @soloandproud on twitter, I got the message. I deactivated the account, unenrolled from solo.im, and will leave this attempt to be of service in the bitbucket.

ninjakeyboard 13y ago

It's a good idea. G+ was a barrier but I filled out my profile and submitted (even though not required).

davidw 13y ago

People interested in this kind of thing, but a bit more open, may appreciate this site: http://discuss.bootstrapped.fm/ http://discuss.bootstrapped.fm/ There are a number of us from HN there - the kind of people really interested in bootstrapped startups.

derefr 13y ago
I'm not sure this is at all the same thing. "One-founder" and "bootstrapped" are orthogonal. You can be a multi-founder bootstrapped startup, or a one-founder VC-money startup.

Ryel 13y ago

I thought the google+ question was rather unimportant so I used the opportunity to ask about free snacks?

Mz 13y ago

I previously tried to start a posterous-based med tech discussion group, right before posterous announced it was pulling the plug. I am still interested in talking with others about that type of thing. I am open to suggestions as to platform, etc.

woohoo7676 13y ago

I just signed up - seconding the comments about using text area for longer answers. Edit: received the confirmation email, just took a little longer

mladenkovacevic 13y ago

I am always worried that these things are just acting as "idea harvesters" ... so while these single founders are discussing strategies and tactics.. some company out there is selecting the best one to build an MVP and pitch to an investor. The fear is completely unfounded, but I guess that's how my mind works. EDIT: Having said all that, I am still waiting for my confirmation email.

rwillmer 13y ago
I'm one of the early people on solo.im; all I can say is that it hasn't felt like that to me. Just a really useful supportive group of people who are out there doing it, willing to share our experience. Rachel P.S. And I don't buy the idea of "idea harvesters" anyway. Ideas are easy; ask any founder. Execution is the hard bit...
- futurist 13y ago
  Why are there so many of the same kinds of apps if ideas are easy? I think "idea harvesting" is definitely something to be concerned about.
  - wj 13y ago
    Didn't you just answer your question with the question? There are so many of the same kinds of apps because everybody came up with the same idea.
    - whatusername 13y ago
      To be fair -- those "Flappy X" apps on the various app stores were not "everybody coming up with the same idea". Not that flappy bird was in any way original -- but there is a lot of copying.
dogweather 13y ago
Ideas aren't worth anything.

ritchiem 13y ago

Sounds great I was just having a bad 10days. So need a kick in the right direction that I'm hoping this sort of thing could offer.

_zen 13y ago

Great landing page photo, I had it as my desktop a few months ago. http://500px.com/photo/43639202 http://500px.com/photo/43639202

zavi 13y ago

So, a meetup.com with selectivity and a better looking website.

jankins 13y ago

I'm not a G+ user but am interested in joining this group. I filled out the form without realizing that the whole thing is run over G+, so I put in my own website instead, assuming the only reason you were asking for G+ was to find out more about each applicant. I think some explanation about why the G+ link is on the application would be helpful.

wj 13y ago
I assumed it was that the masterminds were going to be done over Google hangouts but I could be wrong.

jasonkester 13y ago

Excellent timing. Over the last few months, I've been finding less and less things here at HN that have anything to do with building/running/growing a software business. I scan down the entire homepage and there's just nothing to click on anymore. It just looks like /r/programming or Slashdot used to look. Something new will emerge pretty soon to fill the void, and our demographic will slowly find their way there, sadly leaving this place to all those folks currently having so much fun arguing about the time-wastish stuff on the front page. If this has a chance of being that place, sign me up.

lifeisstillgood 13y ago
normally I ignore this "HN is not what it used to be comment". But this time there is a "something else" to compare to. And we have lost something on the front page - but Ask is still vibrant. Now I must go ignore myself

h1karu 13y ago

Could this be a fishing expedition to troll in new product ideas ? I've heard some of the lean startup people are into building fake landing pages to collect interesting data. These type of well designed single form pages are getting easier and easier to build..

wj 13y ago
It could be but that would be an awfully cynical view. Sometimes it is okay to give people the benefit of the doubt. I am interested to hear more about what you have heard about. Doing what you're suggesting seems like a fool's errand.

almosnow 13y ago

Gregor, get me in ... Mail is <HN username>@gmail

chacham15 13y ago

I reaaaaaaaly like the idea. I have soo many questions I need help with from really basic things to complicated technical things. The main problem I had with the site is: "The solo.im currency is contribution. No contribution = no membership." I'm not in a place where I can contribute. Seriously, I am probably the last person who should be giving advice. I'm on my first startup and havent even launched yet! More than that, I work about every day of the week more hours than I care to admit to. I just dont think that I would have the time necessary to do justice to the others and not be just a leecher.

arikrak 13y ago

I figure it could be a way to meet a cofounder..

gmq 13y ago

I signed up but I haven't got anything after the confirmation email. Is there a waiting list?