What are the downsides of being a single founder (ie. not having a co-founder)?

Ohh the dreaded "single founder thread" Let the good times roll on this one. <p>Ok I'm a single founder, when I read PG's essays about singles, I experienced a wave of insecurity on my part which lasted approximately 3-4 months. Whatever experiences I had back then could more likely reflect the experiences felt by other single founders here. <p>Most YCer's know the game and how it's played. We all know to a certain degree that the odds are stacked against you when you're a single founder. I won't wax rhetoric with you cuz I'm sure you'll find a ton of posts about that. <p>My point is this when I couldn't find a suitable co-founder I said screw it, I'm building my product by myself with no venture backing whatsoever. If it fails, it fails. If it succeeds then great. You won't know whats out there for you until you go out and let your balls hang out so to speak. Go out there and build it no matter the odds, no matter what other people think, if you did your homework and think there's market for it. Go do it! there is no better time to test out that idea of yours than now. Open source and low low hardware costs present us a low barrier of entry in order for us to carry this out. <p>There are alot of naysayers that will tell you this and that. But the way I see it only time and customers/users will tell you if your product is a success or not. And that my friend matters more than anything. Single founder or not.

If you actually manage to do the work, the only downside is some investors have a <i>story</i> about how single founders can't hack it.<p>It's a prejudice. They've decided things already, <i>a priori</i>, without knowing your particular details.<p>Whether or not a lot of other people can or cannot accomplish something doesn't affect whether or not your or I can or cannot accomplish something.<p>Additionally, the notion that "not being able to talk your friends into starting the company with you" is a "vote of no confidence" is mistaken, for numerous reasons. For example, these days it's hard to find people to work with you at YOUR start-up because so many people are doing start-ups of their own! Furthermore, entrepreneurial spirit is a personality trait, and people have widely differing personalities. Look at all the awesome Linux hackers that write code 100 times more complex than anything most start-ups have to worry about, and yet who work at Red Hat or similar, instead of starting their own company with their fearsome hacking skills. And not all of us have friends that are into this stuff in the first place.<p>It just happened that PG's buddies were into hacking Lisp. Other people's social circles may revolve more around music, or gaming, or any number of other interests a person may have besides programming or start-ups. I know a lot of people in bands; if I didn't program, I'd probably be in one too.<p>Very few people will accept having no life as the price of <i>attempting</i> a start-up. The prospect of staring at a screen all day every day, living with hackers, and eating ramen for months is just not something that has wide appeal. That's not a vote of NO confidence; that's just called being reasonable and wanting a life.<p>I think most people couldn't go through with it even if success were <i>guaranteed</i>. They'd bail partway through. I think that's normal. To actually do it you have to be somewhat insane.

Top 10 Reasons for Being a Single Founder<p>10. You spend 0 time debating technical issues that have already been decided.<p>9. You spend 0 time refereeing personal differences among the other co-founders.<p>8. You spend 0 time wondering why they can't keep up with you, or why they're doing something other than what you have already agreed upon.<p>7. You learn every part of your business. You never worry what's happening outside of "your turf".<p>6. You can always find a sympathetic ear to discuss a technical, marketing, or business issue. For free.<p>5. You can always find someone else to socialize with, with no impact on your business. For free.<p>4. You are not going to get hit by a bus.<p>3. If your significant other wants more of your time, give them a picture of the new house, car, jewelry, or NBA franchise they will own if they exercise some patience. They're the only other one that really matters.<p>2. You get real good setting up your schedule to work best for you, with "head down" time, and other time.<p>And the best reason for being a single founder...<p>1. You keep all of your equity. All of it.

I am a single founder. Here at Y Startup I have found that the predominant opinion is that anyone over 30 is, or should be DEAD. In the real world I find that if your not under 30 (me 48), doing a startup with a co-founder is not likely. Young people are intimidated by your age (discrimination?), and most older people have responsibilities beyond themselves which prohibit taking serious risk. <p>If your like me and have made your bones, and bucks, the risk is non existant. Necessity being the mother of invention, I forge ahead alone, though I often wish I had a partner. I have heard the comments by VC that a single founder model usually fails. I think that is valid. In my circle, I don't know any other single founders, so subjectively speaking it seems that the VC guys are right.<p>I believe it takes a psychologically unique individual to go it alone. We are as a species evolved to work best in a tribe. Those who stand apart from the tribe and are successful are few and far between.<p>My list of downsides are:<p>You make every decision alone.<p>By definition there is no synergy in a singularity.<p>VC perception is against you. If your not self funded, your going to have a hard slog finding funds from this group. Keep in mind that poltically speaking, manipulating founders is part and parcel of the VC game. A game made more difficult in a single founder model.<p>During the early stage, pre employee, you have to be a bright and lucky person to make every right decision on your own. You will make more mistakes.<p>You better be disciplined. If not your going to fail alone. <p>The upside you ask?<p>Only one that I can think of and that is that at the end of the day, since the system is so stacked against you, if you make it, you own it. And that has tremendous rewards. For me it meant very very early exit from traditional work patterns. CHOICE, CHOICE, and more CHOICE about every aspect of what I do. No one interferes in any way when you pay your own way. But, the old saying that its lonely at the top, is no lie. If you can handle that, the rewards are worth it.

I find working with people helps to motivate me (not that I am not motivated), but it helps with setting goals and verbalizing them to someone else.<p>Having someone to talk to about technical issues specific to the problem you are solving also helps.<p>Investors won't often invest in one founder. They like it when there is two people (what if you get hit by a bus)<p>If you have a good co-founder you can get more work done, or they can deal with business related issues like marketing and legal stuff or do design (I am really bad at making my applications look good)

I think co-founders can both help and hurt you depending on how focused they are. If you are very focused on your startup and working the long hours to make it happen it can be rough when you can't fully depend on your co-founders to get as much done as you expect. It's great to have someone else who believes in your project, especially if they can do things you aren't good at. However, it can create an extra tension when you have to be dependant on someone else getting their work done before you can move on to your next milestone. Just my 2 cents.

I've done both.<p>I started Swell Technology in 1999, ran it for seven years as the only stock holder. I made a pretty good living, worked on interesting problems, drove a 350Z, and had an office overlooking the corner of 6th and Congress in downtown Austin.<p>Now I'm a 47.5% stock holder in Virtualmin, Inc. (YC has 5%, and my co-founder has the other 47.5%). I work out of the second bedroom in a rental house a couple blocks away from downtown Mountain View, CA, make barely enough money to cover the rent, and don't own a car. But, having a co-founder is a still lot better. I fully expect that in a year, the success I had with my previous company will be dwarfed by what we can achieve with the new one, and a huge percentage of that is being able to share the load.<p>I worked all the time with my old company. For seven years running I never took a real vacation. The sound of a ringing phone makes my stomach hurt due to the constant support calls with my old business (so now, I don't have a phone...we have a bug tracker and public forums to help customers).<p>It's entirely possible to start a company solo. But there are some things you'll want to avoid. If you see yourself in any of the following situations, it is time to change your business:<p>1. More business than you can handle solo, but not enough revenue to hire help. You're in a bad business or not charging enough. Change something.<p>2. The mundane (taxes, paperwork, legal compliance, sales or support calls) is taking more than 25% of your time, in order to make ends meet. Pretty much the same reasons as in 1.<p>3. You realize that the "right price" on your products is such that you'll never be big enough to hire employees, even if 50% of the available market buys what you're selling. If you can't expand the available market, then you're in a bad market.<p>With a co-founder a lot of these things are more immediately obvious...it's easy to keep plugging along when only one paycheck has to be cut each month, and you can tighten your belt one more notch. With two or more, the math adds up, and one of you realizes "Hey, we're never going to build a business at this rate. We need to change things."<p>So, sure, there is a possibility that you'll be Markus Frind or Joshua Schacter. If the idea is really good, and you execute well, you can make great things solo. But the odds are against it.

The way I see it now, it's a harder to stay focused and committed to one vision if you are by yourself. Having a co-founder forces you to choose one thing, define it so that both of you understand it, and then show up every-day to implement it. By yourself, you can always just stop working on an idea and move to something else. You don't have anyone to make commitments to.<p>I used to get annoyed about working with other people because I would lose some control and would be "bound" to one idea. Now I see that as a potential good thing, assuming the initial plans are solid and the team is solid.

Sometimes I can go 2 straight days without talking to anyone. It's a bit weird. <p>I think having some company and having someone to act as a sanity checker is valuable. <p>Finding a co-founder for the sake of having a co-founder can be a bad thing. The person you bring in should be firmly on the same page as you are or it's going to be more of a negative thing. <p>Udi

An alternate for the question would be: What advantages are there for having a co-founder?<p>Mostly I'd like to read people's opinions and not particularly argue for one side. In my opinion, the right answer depends completely on what type of person you are. Although historically, it seems multiple co-founders are much more prevalent.

I like to think of you guys as my co-founders. Hope you don't mind.

I think it depends on your personality.<p>I really have a difficult time settling on equity, because I have absolutely no faith in "business" co-founders. I really see no purpose until a product is well-developed. You could probably call this a Mark-Zuckerberg'ism ;)<p>So I have to negotiate the equity with a technical co-founder, but when times come where they don't want to keep up with you, then what? So it all depends on if you can find a strong co-founder or not. If you can, I'd say go for it.<p>Otherwise, I don't think it's that bad to develop something solo until you can attract some attention. I plan on doing that when I get back to school.

One technical founder will not be able to do as much work as a 2 technical founders. So the downside is less man hours to get your product coded and polished. This is assuming everyone is equally talented. I think it's very inspiring to see two motivated and talented people together set on one goal with nothing else in mind. Also, with 2 people, it's less likely to get depressed because you are always trying to appear motivated for the other person. You just don't want someone unmotivated or without a high value add. He or she should add as much value as you.

Had an interesting conversation with an angel today (the kind of angel that does not imply insanity of this writer based on this sentence). We happened to talk about this exact issue, and he mentioned a relevant book -- David G. Thomson's Blueprint to a Billion. The book says that one of the common charecteristics of these successful companies is having 2 founders -- one dealing with internals of the company, one presenting a public face and dealing with externals. I am planning to check out the book.

It is easier to work naked.

my thoughts (I am still trying to succeed):<p>I am wondering whether news.YC is the worst place to look for a cofounder - everyone is into their own startup!<p>The problem with going solo is - if and when you achieve traction (users are the only thing that counts), then you will find people willing to join. But then, they will want amounts of equity that will appear unreasonable to you - because you invested so much sweat, toil, tears and brains - when no one believed in it.

I know a guy who would make a good partner. Good programmer, with domain knowledge. But Wife+family+a love of FPSs == nevermind.

Ask Joshua Schachter. :-)