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Stop Looking for a Cofounder

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Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder

#41

Post by brightball »

He's not wrong, but a lot of what he says is very dependent on self-discipline. Having a partner, in addition to all of the other perks, also gives you a point of accountability the forces prioritization and a real plan.

It is entirely possible to start a business by yourself. People do it successfully every single day but there are a whole lot of complicated factors from financial, legal, technical and psychological at play just to get started.

Having a support system around you can insulate you from a lot of the complications that come from going it on your own, but that support system is usually based on goodwill not vested interest.

Even people who "go it on their own" but happen to be married when they do so very clearly have a partner in the business.

Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder

#42

Post by MCRed »

jcrubino wrote: post #30
dboreham wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My response whenever I hear the "life style" label is to ask who's life style are we talking about? For me, the only difference is that in the traditional VC startup case it is the life style of the VCs that is being enhanced.

They hedge your risk of time and effort by giving you resources of capital, networks, IP to make things happen plus a bonus if the startup gets traction enough for a public offering or profitable exit sale. There are many devils in the details but getting paid to do something you are committed to completing is not a bad offer.

They also greatly increase the likelihood that your startup will go bankrupt, and decrease the likelihood that it will be moderately successful.

Thus they do not hedge your financial risk they increase your risk.

VC only makes sense if you are bound and determined to make a billion dollar, or at least 100 million dollar company.

They do not give you access to networks IP or make things happen, they give you money and then they double dip on the backend.

The romanticized view of VCs present on this site is not reflective of reality... or my nearly 30 years of dealign with them.

Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder

#43

Post by jcrubino »

MCRed wrote: post #39
jcrubino wrote: post #16

PG context of a startup is a company that has the potential to make it into a leading stock market index. Anything else is considered a "life style" business and not within YC or most other VC's scope of interest for funding.

Uh, no. That's not what PG said, and if he ever used the term "lifestyle" he didn't mean it that way. Most companies YC funds do not have the potential to be on a stock market index, because they are features as much as products at that stage and often addressing smaller markets. They are still startups. YC and VC are very particular avenues for startups, but they are not what DEFINES a startup. YC and VC are the sil…

True, I am not trying to provide the exact definitions for what qualifies as a PG or YC startup per se. But I believe you can quote PG as saying the "ideal exit" for any startup YC incubates is a public offering. Additionally the idea of "lifestyle" startups is well known in SV and the concept is also well known to be frowned upon by the VC's who make the most noise who are looking for a big exit one way or the other.

Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder

#44

Post by MCRed »

brightball wrote: post #41

He's not wrong, but a lot of what he says is very dependent on self-discipline. Having a partner, in addition to all of the other perks, also gives you a point of accountability the forces prioritization and a real plan. It is entirely possible to start a business by yourself. People do it successfully every single day but there are a whole lot of complicated factors from financial, legal, technical and psychological…

Founding a startup with my spouse was very useful in a lot of ways, but unfortunately, despite enthusiasm my spouse lacked sufficient skills and experience, so unless your spouse has also been working at startups for a decade, it's not always ideal-- but you can count on loyalty there.

Truth is, give me a cofounder who has been working for startups for 10 years and what you say makes sense. But co-founding with someone whose first experience at a startup is founding one and it doesn't make sense.

And it's not like more resources are bad, it's a question of their cost.

Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder

#46

Post by swalsh »

If you're a programmer, and you're relatively young (like under 40) you probably don't have a lot of experience. Sure you have a lot of experience programming, and solving problems. But it's VERY unlikely that you know an industry, and it's unsolved or badly solved problems. To get to know these problems, I think you need some outsider experience.

For example, i'm in the healthcare industry. I can name a whole bunch of problems here, but none of them are ripe for a new startup. That's because I really only find out about a problem from my little part of the world. The few times i've had glimpses beyond my world I certainly haven't had enough of a glimpse to really try and tackle it.

So to me, that's important. Without a cofounder who really knows an industry, you're going to work on 1st world problems that a normal person might run into, that are solvable by a single person.

To be honest, of the problems left in that space they're not really interesting businesses. Either they won't make too much money, or they solve a boring non-problem.

As a technical person I want to find someone who has ran into good problems, and will know if a solution will work or not.

Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder

#47

Post by aesthetics1 »

dceddia wrote: post #33
aesthetics1 wrote: post #23

I believe John is writing for an audience that PG is not addressing. He is taking his lifestyle business approach and saying that it should apply to businesses that are seeking funding and trying to ultimately have an exit, or become a shiny unicorn. This just isn't the right advice for YC style companies.

I think there's a lot of overlap in the two audiences though. Someone who doesn't want a corporate job might say "I should start a startup." Maybe in their head they're thinking a one-man shop, but then they google about startups and read PG's essays about these larger efforts involving fundraising and such, and get deterred from their original (quite do-able) plan. This article is saying to those people: "Nevermind…

Fair enough! I think there is a lot of information out there, and it can certainly be overwhelming.

Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder

#48

Post by jchendy »

rcarrigan87 wrote: post #22

Too many people who are new to entrepreneurship only see startups as their entry point. Part of this is media coverage, everyone is talking about funding mega rounds and the VC fueled entrepreneur world. I think many entrepreneurs are less interested in building Billion dollar companies and are more seeking freedom from suppressive corporate jobs. But when the only narrative you see is mega startups it starts to seem…

Do you know of any resources to learn about tech lifestyle businesses?

Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder

#49

Post by MCRed »

swalsh wrote: post #46

If you're a programmer, and you're relatively young (like under 40) you probably don't have a lot of experience. Sure you have a lot of experience programming, and solving problems. But it's VERY unlikely that you know an industry, and it's unsolved or badly solved problems. To get to know these problems, I think you need some outsider experience. For example, i'm in the healthcare industry. I can name a whole bunch…

You're making a couple assumptions I disagree with. Even when I was under 40 I knew of more problems that needed to be solved than I could possibly address. Every job I've had has exposed me to industry problems that were big... and you can found a company in an industry, be a single founder and then hire people who have domain expertise. Domain expertise doesn't mean one has to be a cofounder.

Also, consider does this domain expert have the background in startups that would be useful? Or were they being an employee in that domain?

I can think of a half dozen purely technical problems that would improve a billion people's lives-- and I'm talking purely software here.

Re: Stop Looking for a Cofounder

#50

Post by chjohasbrouck »

jlarocco wrote: post #31

I've always thought people desperately looking for cofounders on HN, or asking how to find them, are kind of goofy and lame. Has there ever been an even moderately successful company cofounded by strangers who met while slumming the internet for cofounders? It seems to me that PG almost certainly didn't mean people were better off starting companies with random strangers than they would be starting off alone. Looking…

I've been that person, and that's exactly how I felt while I was doing it. I don't try anymore, the hours were for nothing and it's a complete waste of time.

A cofounder needs a very strong skillset, a life circumstance that permits them to drop everything for a startup without dire consequences, a level of enthusiasm and drive that to other people seems almost delusional, and your opportunity needs to out-compete all their other opportunities for more than a year. That's an incredibly rare person. There are probably more successful pop stars than there are people who fit that profile.

PG says if you're solo, you should look for a cofounder. When he gave that advice, it was because he observed that the majority of successful startups had multiple cofounders. But I don't think he bothered to consider the fact that approximately zero of those confounders met each other by going on a "cofounder search."

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