Stop Looking for a Cofounder
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Stop Looking for a Cofounder
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Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder
#2"If you’re unable to convince friends to start a business with you, PG says it’s a vote of no confidence. But, what if you’re like me and you don’t have a lot of entrepreneurial friends? Or, maybe you do, but they don’t want to work on your ideas? It doesn’t really matter what your friends think of your ideas or you in regards to starting a business–the votes that count come in the form of paying customers. Since it’s cheap and easy to spot faults in unproven business ideas, early votes of no confidence, even from well-meaning friends and family are standard fare. Expect and take them with a grain of salt. Some of the best companies today sounded pretty dumb on paper yesterday."
This is probably the clearest refutation of Graham's single founder section I've seen.
I'd expound a bit on one of the later points:
If what you're doing is somewhat domain-specific, only the opinions of people in your target area and market matter. You might know a lot of people, but if they're not in your target area and market they might not get it. If you're getting negative feedback from them, it might be irrelevant. The only negative feedback you should listen to is from people who really get your target area.
Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder
#3> Today’s full-stack engineers have replaced yesterday’s sysadmins, DBAs, and webdevs altogether.
Seriously, when is this "full-stack" nonsense going to stop? With the exception of a few geniuses, "full-stack" is just shorthand for "less than mediocre at a lot of different things".
Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder
#4"If you’re unable to convince friends to start a business with you, PG says it’s a vote of no confidence. But, what if you’re like me and you don’t have a lot of entrepreneurial friends? Or, maybe you do, but they don’t want to work on your ideas? It doesn’t really matter what your friends think of your ideas or you in regards to starting a business–the votes that count come in the form of paying customers. Since it’…
> The only negative feedback you should listen to is from people who really get your target area.
And perhaps not even in that case. If they are entrenched in their ways or feel threatened then their advice may hinder. Still, is probably wise to get a variety of input just to avoid overlooking important fundamentals.
Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder
#5> Today’s full-stack engineers have replaced yesterday’s sysadmins, DBAs, and webdevs altogether. Seriously, when is this "full-stack" nonsense going to stop? With the exception of a few geniuses, "full-stack" is just shorthand for "less than mediocre at a lot of different things".
True. But a jack of all trades with powerful tools may get to market sooner than a large group of specialists who can't see the forest through the trees.
Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder
#6> Today’s full-stack engineers have replaced yesterday’s sysadmins, DBAs, and webdevs altogether. Seriously, when is this "full-stack" nonsense going to stop? With the exception of a few geniuses, "full-stack" is just shorthand for "less than mediocre at a lot of different things".
His point remains though, a single person can have a broad enough skillset to achieve a lot today and we're still getting more efficient.
Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder
#7> Today’s full-stack engineers have replaced yesterday’s sysadmins, DBAs, and webdevs altogether. Seriously, when is this "full-stack" nonsense going to stop? With the exception of a few geniuses, "full-stack" is just shorthand for "less than mediocre at a lot of different things".
I've seen people promote themselves as full-stack engineers who literally just spent three months studying Ruby on Rails and some JavaScript and don't actually know any true front-end development or back-end development.
I've found that people who might actually qualify for the title (and they do exist) generally don't use it to describe themselves.
Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder
#8> Today’s full-stack engineers have replaced yesterday’s sysadmins, DBAs, and webdevs altogether. Seriously, when is this "full-stack" nonsense going to stop? With the exception of a few geniuses, "full-stack" is just shorthand for "less than mediocre at a lot of different things".
This isn't really true. Most great developers I know have interest and experience up and down the stack though not expertise in all parts.
Often, those that stay specialized in one layer of the stack are less helpful because they don't see the forest for the trees.
There's an analogy of specialization causing extinction somewhere in here, too...
Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder
#9> Today’s full-stack engineers have replaced yesterday’s sysadmins, DBAs, and webdevs altogether. Seriously, when is this "full-stack" nonsense going to stop? With the exception of a few geniuses, "full-stack" is just shorthand for "less than mediocre at a lot of different things".
You haven't met anyone who can work at all levels of the stack, then. There are engineers with a good grasp of the fundamentals, and know how to apply it across the board.
Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder
#10> Today’s full-stack engineers have replaced yesterday’s sysadmins, DBAs, and webdevs altogether. Seriously, when is this "full-stack" nonsense going to stop? With the exception of a few geniuses, "full-stack" is just shorthand for "less than mediocre at a lot of different things".
You haven't met anyone who can work at all levels of the stack, then. There are engineers with a good grasp of the fundamentals, and know how to apply it across the board.
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