From about 20,000 feet higher than the OP, one of the issues about PG, Sam, and YC is the combination of (1) lots of warnings about the dangers of disputes among startup co-founders and, thus, the extreme need for yet another startup co-founder, this one to play <i>den mother</i>, peace maker, mother hen, group psychologist, Chief Cat Herder, etc. versus (2) extreme negativity about a solo founder.<p>From another 10,000 feet up, here is a simple observation: All across the US, from the largest cities to the smallest crossroad communities, there are solo founders of successful auto repair shops, auto body shops, dentist practices, CPA practices, rental property ownership and management, pizza carryout shops, Chinese carry out shops, <i>Mobil Travel Guide</i> five star restaurants, pediatrician practices, manufacturer representative practices, big-truck, little-truck businesses of wide variety, etc. where commonly the cash to start the business is higher than that of servers, domain name, and Internet connection of a Web site.<p>So, solo founders do relatively well in <i>main street</i> startups. Since co-founders are not crucial for main street business and since a Web site startup should be in most ways easier, why are co-founders crucial for Web site startups? Since co-founder disputes are so common and potentially destructive, why be so eager to have co-founders and so down on solo founders?<p>With the above, to me, hiring a co-founder as a recruiter, office peace maker, general evangelist, smiling face, optimistic, good hand shake, meeter and greeter who knows a lot of people is a big slice of cash and equity for the usual thin budget of a startup.<p>Or, as we often hear, the crucial work of a startup is to keep the <i>burn rate</i> as low as possible and ASAP please the customers/users and get to earnings. In this case, an office peace maker, etc. is at best a nice to have if for free, otherwise not a must have for free, and likely too expensive if have to pay much.