7 ms·

Top 10 One-person Startups

46 points by ub 12y ago

api 12y ago
I'm sort of in the market for a co-founder, someone with a strong marketing, sales, and biz-dev background most likely. I'm the nerd looking for the suit, not the other way around, though I do have some business experience myself. I at least know which way is up in the biz domain. :) But if I don't find such a person who really looks like a great fit (both skills and personality/vision compatibility), I will go it alone. I consider the sole founder path superior to a bad or hasty fit for a co-founder. I do have a partnership and some advisor relationships in the works, so I'm not totally alone. If I raise I'll also have investors to threaten to demote me if the goals aren't m^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H I mean contribute valuable insight.
hemancuso 12y ago
This should be titled one-founder startups. Spoiler: #1 is Amazon.
- api 12y ago
  That's almost comical to think about... a one-person startup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOXpKUu6pUg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOXpKUu6pUg There are some that grow to large sizes with a pretty small number of employees though.
  - bdcravens 12y ago
    One-person startup is doable - moderate SaaS app that generates decent revenue. However, infographics like this are obviously saying that startup=beeeeellleeeon dollar companies
- jasode 12y ago
  I understand the article's criteria for "one person" but I think it's worth it to add some nuance to that list... Amazon was "one person" as in boundaries defined by legal ownership of a business entity, but it was really kicked off by hiring Shel Kaphan to engineer their first web store. If Jeff Bezos was more inclusive, and/or Shel Kaphan was more business-savvy, he arguably might have been a co-founder instead of a forgotten employee (albeit a wealthy ex-employee.) If we rule out situations like amazon, and listed only companies that were truly "built" by one person until it reached critical mass, that would be a much more interesting list.
  - api 12y ago
    I'd be really curious to see that too, especially if it remained one person until revenue hit some kind of critical mass. One person builds, ships, markets, ... It's certainly possible but obviously very hard for many reasons.
Kabacaru 12y ago
Couldn't even think of one woman to put in there?
- dblacc 12y ago
  I believe its ranked by valuation and/or users/subscribers
- quotient 12y ago
  Why should the author try to fulfill some sort of gender-quota? The purpose of the article is clearly to collate the top 10 single-founder startups, rather than the top 5 male and top 5 female single-founder startups, etc.
- api 12y ago
  This one comes to mind: http://www.nastygal.com http://www.nastygal.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAVq-sW6LCA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAVq-sW6LCA Not sure I'd call it a "tech" startup, but it definitely counts as a startup and a successful one. Apologies to #2 if I'm wrong about it being sole founder. I'd say it's more successful than some of the revenue-free entries on this list.
- troymc 12y ago
  This is an excellent question. There are plenty of tech companies which happen to have been founded by one woman. Why not include some? I suspect this wasn't a deliberate oversight by the author, but it does illustrate the benefit of having an editor or some other feedback before clicking Publish. Examples: Blurb, founded by Eileen Gittins Mightybell, founded by Gina Bianchini LearnVest, founded by Alexa von Tobel Joyus, founded by Sukhinder Singh Cassidy
html5web 12y ago
Almost all of them US based!
roberthahn 12y ago
Disappointed there's no women on the list. Even more disappointed that fully 7 of the top 10 have no indication of revenue. Remember: if there's no revenue, it's not a business. It's a hobby. EDIT: To clarify, (I noted someone else pointing out it's very US-centric, which is ANOTHER problem) I have serious doubts it's really the top 10 in the world. More likely the top 10 this author has heard of.
- funky_lambda 12y ago
  >Disappointed there's no women on the list Maybe they should try harder then.
dblacc 12y ago
The top 2 (Amazon & Ebay) where founded in almost a different internet age. It makes wonder if a solo founder could create such a large company today.
- danbucholtz 12y ago
  I think it's possible. How many founders does a typical start-up have? I guess I don't see a huge difference from one to two founders. I never was a venture capital guy until recently, but I think it's pretty important to success. Having some marketing money as well as the money to hire a few guys to help out early makes a huge difference. My night project, PaperBox (gopaperbox.com), started with just two guys doing it a combined 20 hours per week or so. Over the course of 6 months or so, we have released several updates and grown substantially. I do wonder what we could be if we could commit to it full time and have any sort of a marketing budget.
  - dblacc 12y ago
    Im not a founder so my knowledge is somewhat limited, but from what I see around me most of the known or more 'successful' startups tend to have at least 2 founders. There must be some reason/correlation behind that right ?
- sputknick 12y ago
  its exactly the same. I bet there was someone in 1996 who was saying "yeah, you could start a tech company alone in 1985, but today... its too crowded, I bet it can't be done anymore". It can always be done.
  - dblacc 12y ago
    I'll accept that point but I still don't think its the same. My thinking is that these companies pretty much grew with the internet, which played a pretty big role in their success and I just don't see the internet growing in that same fashion today. That said, the way we use the internet today is changing which is why I don't think its exactly impossible but would question how difficult it would be in comparison to 20years ago.
soccergee 12y ago
oh no. is this site down??? I was stoked on checking this out.
pyb 12y ago
Shel Kaphan, Amazon's first employee, should arguably be seen as a cofounder of sorts: Although he's not officially considered a co-founder, he and Bezos were discussing the company even before it was incorporated, and Bezos once referred to him as "the most important person ever in the history of Amazon.com." Source : http://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-earliest-employees-2014-4 http://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-earliest-employees-20...
kayhi 12y ago
Anyone know of the top one-person start-ups as in a single person is still running them? I suspect it is in the area of affiliate marketing.
- eappleby 12y ago
  I am the founder and sole operator of PubExchange, a platform that helps publishers manage their link exchanges. It is currently powering billions of links per month.
- marcusramberg 12y ago
  Pinboard comes to mind.
- dkfmn 12y ago
  I second your industry suspicions. There are probably also some niche subscription businesses out there like CandyJapan (http://www.candyjapan.com/candy-japan-crosses-10000-mrr http://www.candyjapan.com/candy-japan-crosses-10000-mrr) but at larger scale.
dkfmn 12y ago
Seems pretty misleading to call these one-person startups. Maybe PlentyOfFish should qualify because it was run by one person for years with significant revenues and profits, and there may be a good case for DuckDuckGo. I can't say with absolute certainty about all the rest but many were solo founders who quickly attracted a team.
- theIV 12y ago
  I'm fairly certain Marco's Instapaper was a one man project until he sold it. [0] I can't really comment on the rest. [0] http://www.marco.org/about http://www.marco.org/about Past Projects
  - dkfmn 12y ago
    Appreciate the detail, that is one of the companies I didn't know well.
- ProAm 12y ago
  I'm pretty sure Amazon was not a one-person start up. Maybe the idea, but he had a team from the get-go.
cpursley 12y ago
Didn't know todoist is a single-founder company. I'm a big fan; only todo list that's stuck.
shuri 12y ago
Doesn't imgur deserve to be here?
petercooper 12y ago
Techmeme only has 10,000 recurring readers? I don't believe that for a second. I loaded the "source" for this info - http://www.businessinsider.com/techmeme-growth-2014-3 http://www.businessinsider.com/techmeme-growth-2014-3 - and the only place 10,000 recurring readers is mentioned is in a hypothetical example of how stats can be inflated by content sites, not actual stats for Techmeme.
mhartl 12y ago
They missed one of my favorite examples: Mojang, makers of Minecraft (with single founder Markus Persson, a.k.a. Notch).
ojosilva 12y ago
How about a single-founder startup list? I wish I had one so I could show it to the VCs who we're closing a round with. They insist I get a co-founder for the business side (I'm a techie), with lot's of contacts. I said I prefer to hire a biz person instead, but they say we can't afford, at this stage, to spend our money on a top-level exec. So it we'll be better if we just find one that's willing to become a co-founder. I replied to them a "co-founder" is much more than an exec with lots of equity and a below-market wage. Years ago it would have been great to have a business co-founder so I could focus more on product. But not after 4 years, with a team of 11 and a profitable enterprise software business. But I don't know if that's common or not. Is it? I feel hiring a co-founder (sic) is not a formula for success.
Jayd2014 12y ago
Chatroulette founder would be a suggestion for non-US founders. I heard his site makes 100k per month from ad revenues.

46 points by ub 12y ago

api 12y ago

I'm sort of in the market for a co-founder, someone with a strong marketing, sales, and biz-dev background most likely. I'm the nerd looking for the suit, not the other way around, though I do have some business experience myself. I at least know which way is up in the biz domain. :) But if I don't find such a person who really looks like a great fit (both skills and personality/vision compatibility), I will go it alone. I consider the sole founder path superior to a bad or hasty fit for a co-founder. I do have a partnership and some advisor relationships in the works, so I'm not totally alone. If I raise I'll also have investors to threaten to demote me if the goals aren't m^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H I mean contribute valuable insight.

hemancuso 12y ago

This should be titled one-founder startups. Spoiler: #1 is Amazon.

api 12y ago
That's almost comical to think about... a one-person startup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOXpKUu6pUg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOXpKUu6pUg There are some that grow to large sizes with a pretty small number of employees though.
- bdcravens 12y ago
  One-person startup is doable - moderate SaaS app that generates decent revenue. However, infographics like this are obviously saying that startup=beeeeellleeeon dollar companies
jasode 12y ago
I understand the article's criteria for "one person" but I think it's worth it to add some nuance to that list... Amazon was "one person" as in boundaries defined by legal ownership of a business entity, but it was really kicked off by hiring Shel Kaphan to engineer their first web store. If Jeff Bezos was more inclusive, and/or Shel Kaphan was more business-savvy, he arguably might have been a co-founder instead of a forgotten employee (albeit a wealthy ex-employee.) If we rule out situations like amazon, and listed only companies that were truly "built" by one person until it reached critical mass, that would be a much more interesting list.
- api 12y ago
  I'd be really curious to see that too, especially if it remained one person until revenue hit some kind of critical mass. One person builds, ships, markets, ... It's certainly possible but obviously very hard for many reasons.

Kabacaru 12y ago

Couldn't even think of one woman to put in there?

dblacc 12y ago
I believe its ranked by valuation and/or users/subscribers
quotient 12y ago
Why should the author try to fulfill some sort of gender-quota? The purpose of the article is clearly to collate the top 10 single-founder startups, rather than the top 5 male and top 5 female single-founder startups, etc.
api 12y ago
This one comes to mind: http://www.nastygal.com http://www.nastygal.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAVq-sW6LCA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAVq-sW6LCA Not sure I'd call it a "tech" startup, but it definitely counts as a startup and a successful one. Apologies to #2 if I'm wrong about it being sole founder. I'd say it's more successful than some of the revenue-free entries on this list.
troymc 12y ago
This is an excellent question. There are plenty of tech companies which happen to have been founded by one woman. Why not include some? I suspect this wasn't a deliberate oversight by the author, but it does illustrate the benefit of having an editor or some other feedback before clicking Publish. Examples: Blurb, founded by Eileen Gittins Mightybell, founded by Gina Bianchini LearnVest, founded by Alexa von Tobel Joyus, founded by Sukhinder Singh Cassidy

html5web 12y ago

Almost all of them US based!

roberthahn 12y ago

Disappointed there's no women on the list. Even more disappointed that fully 7 of the top 10 have no indication of revenue. Remember: if there's no revenue, it's not a business. It's a hobby. EDIT: To clarify, (I noted someone else pointing out it's very US-centric, which is ANOTHER problem) I have serious doubts it's really the top 10 in the world. More likely the top 10 this author has heard of.

funky_lambda 12y ago
>Disappointed there's no women on the list Maybe they should try harder then.

dblacc 12y ago

The top 2 (Amazon & Ebay) where founded in almost a different internet age. It makes wonder if a solo founder could create such a large company today.

danbucholtz 12y ago
I think it's possible. How many founders does a typical start-up have? I guess I don't see a huge difference from one to two founders. I never was a venture capital guy until recently, but I think it's pretty important to success. Having some marketing money as well as the money to hire a few guys to help out early makes a huge difference. My night project, PaperBox (gopaperbox.com), started with just two guys doing it a combined 20 hours per week or so. Over the course of 6 months or so, we have released several updates and grown substantially. I do wonder what we could be if we could commit to it full time and have any sort of a marketing budget.
- dblacc 12y ago
  Im not a founder so my knowledge is somewhat limited, but from what I see around me most of the known or more 'successful' startups tend to have at least 2 founders. There must be some reason/correlation behind that right ?
sputknick 12y ago
its exactly the same. I bet there was someone in 1996 who was saying "yeah, you could start a tech company alone in 1985, but today... its too crowded, I bet it can't be done anymore". It can always be done.
- dblacc 12y ago
  I'll accept that point but I still don't think its the same. My thinking is that these companies pretty much grew with the internet, which played a pretty big role in their success and I just don't see the internet growing in that same fashion today. That said, the way we use the internet today is changing which is why I don't think its exactly impossible but would question how difficult it would be in comparison to 20years ago.

soccergee 12y ago

oh no. is this site down??? I was stoked on checking this out.

pyb 12y ago

Shel Kaphan, Amazon's first employee, should arguably be seen as a cofounder of sorts: Although he's not officially considered a co-founder, he and Bezos were discussing the company even before it was incorporated, and Bezos once referred to him as "the most important person ever in the history of Amazon.com." Source : http://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-earliest-employees-2014-4 http://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-earliest-employees-20...

kayhi 12y ago

Anyone know of the top one-person start-ups as in a single person is still running them? I suspect it is in the area of affiliate marketing.

eappleby 12y ago
I am the founder and sole operator of PubExchange, a platform that helps publishers manage their link exchanges. It is currently powering billions of links per month.
marcusramberg 12y ago
Pinboard comes to mind.
dkfmn 12y ago
I second your industry suspicions. There are probably also some niche subscription businesses out there like CandyJapan (http://www.candyjapan.com/candy-japan-crosses-10000-mrr http://www.candyjapan.com/candy-japan-crosses-10000-mrr) but at larger scale.

dkfmn 12y ago

Seems pretty misleading to call these one-person startups. Maybe PlentyOfFish should qualify because it was run by one person for years with significant revenues and profits, and there may be a good case for DuckDuckGo. I can't say with absolute certainty about all the rest but many were solo founders who quickly attracted a team.

theIV 12y ago
I'm fairly certain Marco's Instapaper was a one man project until he sold it. [0] I can't really comment on the rest. [0] http://www.marco.org/about http://www.marco.org/about Past Projects
- dkfmn 12y ago
  Appreciate the detail, that is one of the companies I didn't know well.
ProAm 12y ago
I'm pretty sure Amazon was not a one-person start up. Maybe the idea, but he had a team from the get-go.

cpursley 12y ago

Didn't know todoist is a single-founder company. I'm a big fan; only todo list that's stuck.

shuri 12y ago

Doesn't imgur deserve to be here?

petercooper 12y ago

Techmeme only has 10,000 recurring readers? I don't believe that for a second. I loaded the "source" for this info - http://www.businessinsider.com/techmeme-growth-2014-3 http://www.businessinsider.com/techmeme-growth-2014-3 - and the only place 10,000 recurring readers is mentioned is in a hypothetical example of how stats can be inflated by content sites, not actual stats for Techmeme.

mhartl 12y ago

They missed one of my favorite examples: Mojang, makers of Minecraft (with single founder Markus Persson, a.k.a. Notch).

ojosilva 12y ago

How about a single-founder startup list? I wish I had one so I could show it to the VCs who we're closing a round with. They insist I get a co-founder for the business side (I'm a techie), with lot's of contacts. I said I prefer to hire a biz person instead, but they say we can't afford, at this stage, to spend our money on a top-level exec. So it we'll be better if we just find one that's willing to become a co-founder. I replied to them a "co-founder" is much more than an exec with lots of equity and a below-market wage. Years ago it would have been great to have a business co-founder so I could focus more on product. But not after 4 years, with a team of 11 and a profitable enterprise software business. But I don't know if that's common or not. Is it? I feel hiring a co-founder (sic) is not a formula for success.

Jayd2014 12y ago

Chatroulette founder would be a suggestion for non-US founders. I heard his site makes 100k per month from ad revenues.