No. For the same reason I don’t trust VC backed startups that are scaling.
Ask HN: Do you trust solo entrepreneurs?
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Re: Ask HN: Do you trust solo entrepreneurs?
#72Only once did we actively cancel a contract with a solo entrepreneur. It was a payment platform (on top of Stripe). We later learned (via Twitter photos) he also did a coast-to-coast camping van trip for several weeks. I think he was living in the van, too. All fine. But then during a customer complaint we couldn't get hold of him for days. Maybe in a national park without cellphone reception? It was too much of risk…
I think this is the biggest issue with solo entrepreneurs. Nobody does support and keeps their business running when they are not available. This at the same time is one of the most stressful parts of being a solo entrepreneur. When I ran a one-man-show in the early 2000s I never had time to really take two days off. I needed to be online and at least reply to a few emails every day. Money was good, but there was no time to relax.
Re: Ask HN: Do you trust solo entrepreneurs?
#73Probably slightly less, I can't deny. But whether I trust someone will for the most part not have anything to do with whether they have a cofounder. However, I am not a VC or other investor. That's a different calculus.
Re: Ask HN: Do you trust solo entrepreneurs?
#74[dead]
Re: Ask HN: Do you trust solo entrepreneurs?
#75Depends what for, of course. Something that needs 24-hour on call, obviously not - you have to sleep sometime. Realistically though in terms of 'solo' - exactly 1 employee - I won't know unless you tell me. I will be able to tell that you are a small company. I won't be able to tell that you don't have a co-founder. I might guess from linkedin, but not everyone has a linkedin account.
What does make me suspicious are companies which don't identify themselves - no identifiable person or address.
Otherwise it depends on what you are asking me to rely on you to do, and what are my options if you fail.
Re: Ask HN: Do you trust solo entrepreneurs?
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which is about the same rate that airlines lose luggage. (Unrelated comparison but analogies can help)
I've experienced an airline losing my luggage, but I haven't experienced death yet. Maybe I'm immortal :)
Maybe you've flewn more times than you lived from 30-40
Re: Ask HN: Do you trust solo entrepreneurs?
#77For random SAAS/utility things, no. For actual, core, software yeah absolutely.
But theres a big difference between solo developer and "literally the only person that will ever be involved". If you are dealing with businesses then you need to act like a business. There needs to be contingency planning and availability. Another commenter gave their story of how one such dev didn't have support triage setup when they took a trip, and so the customer wasn't able to get in contact. Thats the stuff I'm talking about.
In reality theres no reason to only have that redundancy during specific time periods (since you want to ensure they know what they are doing already at the point they are actually needed). So my suggestion is to walk the walk from the beginning. If this is the US, you should already be doing admin things like payment and ownership under some corporate structure already (LLC, Corp, etc) for numerous reasons. For the day to day stuff, I think it makes sense to bring on assistance on a regular basis. For instance, you can have a support person help out 1 day a week, or a few days a month, or whatever makes sense for your load. The important thing is that they are being involved before absolutely needed so that when they are needed its not something special.
Re: Ask HN: Do you trust solo entrepreneurs?
#78For your typical solo founder in their 30s, their odds of dying at any point over the next 10 years is something like 0.2%. And short of them dying, their business isn't going anywhere because keeping a SaaS startup online doesn't cost anything -- if you have the skills to do it yourself. Whereas the odds of a venture backed startup shutting down at any point over the next ten years is something like 30%. So from a r…
Is the 100x valid? The odds of a founder dying vs. the chances of a company shutting down seem not apples-to-apples
I would guess there are many cases of solo founders shutting down their business other than founder death...
Re: Ask HN: Do you trust solo entrepreneurs?
#79It depends on your motivations:
If you have a laundry list of features and grand plans to do more, I'd avoid you like the plague. Reliable software is time consuming, and piling on more and more features tends to break corner cases.
If your software is extremely simple, with a few well-defined use cases, and it's clear that you only spend 1/3rd of your time actually programming, I'd probably consider it. (And in this case, there's a good chance you'll hire contractors or employees when your company grows.)
In the former case, (laundry list of features,) I'd conclude that you're a programmer who doesn't want a boss, and quality will probably suffer. In the latter case, I'd conclude that you're a businessman who happens to be selling software.
Re: Ask HN: Do you trust solo entrepreneurs?
#80I've been a solo developer, and people have trusted me.
However, I have always worked under an alternative type of contract: If I deliver, this is the fixed price. If I don't it's free.
That way, the customer risks only the setback in time for the solution, they know what the cost is up front.
I set the cost comfortably high, my hourly rate on average on those projects were more than 20x what I am earning at my current position.
My customers were all happy, and probably still got off cheaper than if they'd hired a big pro consultancy firm.