You don’t actually need a co-founder (2016) • Hacker News Board

Re: You don’t actually need a co-founder (2016)

#61

Post by vram22 » Sat, May 05, 2018, 7:21 PM UTC

danieltillett wrote: post #40

BerislavLopac wrote: post #32

Whether you need a co-founder or not is not about individuals, it's about the skills. To make a startup successful you need to have the required skills; if you are lucky enough to have those skills in a single person, you don't need a co-founder. As a side-note, the exact skills you need will depend on which metric you use to become successful (e.g. whether you want to bootstrap a self-sustainable company, or if you…

If you are bright(ish) you can figure almost all of the needed skills with a bit of reading and practice. I taught myself everything I needed to make a success of my business from software development, devops, accounting, tax, marketing, sales, etc. Sure I made more than a few mistakes, but I didn’t run across anything insurmountable. Sales is an interesting skill. People will buy from pretty bad sales people if the…

Great and inspiring comment. Thank you.

Re: You don’t actually need a co-founder (2016)

#62

Post by brianwawok » Sat, May 05, 2018, 7:22 PM UTC

danieltillett wrote: post #41

rajacombinator wrote: post #24

Good cofounder > solo > bad cofounder. Pretty simple.

If only you didn’t have to worry about good cofounders turning into bad cofounders.

If a cofounder appears good but ends up bad, it means you misjudged him from the start ;)

Which is obviously hard, see entire industry around hiring games...

Re: You don’t actually need a co-founder (2016)

#63

Post by brianwawok » Sat, May 05, 2018, 7:24 PM UTC

justherefortart wrote: post #43

You need capital. Everything else is far less critical.

Some form yes, but it can be sweat and not cash capital. SaaS apps do not need a large cash bankroll in many cases if founded by developers. Your input could be 1h a day for a year on your commute.

Re: You don’t actually need a co-founder (2016)

#64

Post by loceng » Sat, May 05, 2018, 7:49 PM UTC

wenbin wrote: post #59

To build a successful startup, you don't have to get a co-founder. What you need is a team. If you are able to get things off the ground, doing 0 to 1 all by yourself, then you don't need a co-founder. But doing 1 to N, you need a team. I had a co-founder in my first company, and we were very unproductive, as reaching consensus took a lot of time. Then I started my second company without a cofounder. Things get way b…

A programmer who learns business skills - who already has money is the next level up to start from, though designers for awhile seemed to be getting their due share of attention/importance validated in the trifecta of design-business-engineering skills.

Re: You don’t actually need a co-founder (2016)

#65

Post by loceng » Sat, May 05, 2018, 7:53 PM UTC

BerislavLopac wrote: post #32

Whether you need a co-founder or not is not about individuals, it's about the skills. To make a startup successful you need to have the required skills; if you are lucky enough to have those skills in a single person, you don't need a co-founder. As a side-note, the exact skills you need will depend on which metric you use to become successful (e.g. whether you want to bootstrap a self-sustainable company, or if you…

"I personally couldn't sell my way out of a paper bag" - Is this an expression you've seen before? First time I've seen it, I like it. It's opposite to idea of someone who can sell pet rocks.

Re: You don’t actually need a co-founder (2016)

#66

Post by maxsilver » Sat, May 05, 2018, 8:01 PM UTC

danieltillett wrote: post #40

BerislavLopac wrote: post #32

Whether you need a co-founder or not is not about individuals, it's about the skills. To make a startup successful you need to have the required skills; if you are lucky enough to have those skills in a single person, you don't need a co-founder. As a side-note, the exact skills you need will depend on which metric you use to become successful (e.g. whether you want to bootstrap a self-sustainable company, or if you…

If you are bright(ish) you can figure almost all of the needed skills with a bit of reading and practice. I taught myself everything I needed to make a success of my business from software development, devops, accounting, tax, marketing, sales, etc. Sure I made more than a few mistakes, but I didn’t run across anything insurmountable. Sales is an interesting skill. People will buy from pretty bad sales people if the…

Do you have any tips or starting point suggestions for someone who is technical, but otherwise ignorant to marketing/sales?

How would someone learn sales?

Re: You don’t actually need a co-founder (2016)

#67

Post by chatmasta » Sat, May 05, 2018, 8:46 PM UTC

super-serial wrote: post #50

chatmasta wrote: post #44

A lot of companies will start with a prototype by one person who raises a seed round and then takes on a “co-founder.” If you’re a one person operation and you’ve managed to raise money, you need to hire someone anyway, so you may as well find someone who fits the bill of cofounder.

Might as well give them 50% stake in a company you built and might as well dilute your ownership? That makes no sense if you can hire someone to do the job, pay them X% more, and keep 100% ownership of your startup. I think the reason YC and other incubators want cofounders is because it hedges their risk. If one founder gets sick or goes against YC's advice they can apply pressure through the other founder, and in e…

It's not about giving 50% of your company, and in a case like that the co-founder would definitely not get 50% (or deserve it from a risk/reward perspective). It's about having a partner and teammate who helps you accomplish more than you could alone.

Re: You don’t actually need a co-founder (2016)

#68

Post by CamTin » Sat, May 05, 2018, 9:24 PM UTC

stingraycharles wrote: post #45

justherefortart wrote: post #43

You need capital. Everything else is far less critical.

Actually if you have a solid amount of spare time, capital might not what you need. Capital is a means to create time, though.

Labor is also a means of turning time into capital. For example, I use my free evenings and weekends from my dayjob to hustle things on the side with the goal of earning capital in order not to need a day job.

Re: You don’t actually need a co-founder (2016)

#69

Post by danieltillett » Sat, May 05, 2018, 10:06 PM UTC

brianwawok wrote: post #62

danieltillett wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only you didn’t have to worry about good cofounders turning into bad cofounders.

If a cofounder appears good but ends up bad, it means you misjudged him from the start ;) Which is obviously hard, see entire industry around hiring games...

It is more complexity than this as the difference between a good cofounder and a bad one is many times is situational. On one path to growth your cofounder is good and on an alternative path they are bad.

Re: You don’t actually need a co-founder (2016)

#70

Post by danieltillett » Sat, May 05, 2018, 10:22 PM UTC

maxsilver wrote: post #66

danieltillett wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are bright(ish) you can figure almost all of the needed skills with a bit of reading and practice. I taught myself everything I needed to make a success of my business from software development, devops, accounting, tax, marketing, sales, etc. Sure I made more than a few mistakes, but I didn’t run across anything insurmountable. Sales is an interesting skill. People will buy from pretty bad sales people if the…

Do you have any tips or starting point suggestions for someone who is technical, but otherwise ignorant to marketing/sales? How would someone learn sales?

Worry about sales before marketing. It is very easy to snow yourself that marketing is helping when a lot of the time it is just ego building - "look Ma we are on Cruchbase".

Sales is really a numbers games. Almost everybody you talk to says no (and often very rudely), but if your product has any value (and sometimes even when it doesn't) someone will say yes. Set a target per day of approaches and don't stop until you reach it.

On the actual sales pitch try to not to overwhelm the potential customers with information (I still do this). You should aim to be listening 60% of the time and talking 40% of the time. Record your pitches so you can review where you went wrong and time how much you are talking.

If you are the founder and built the product you should be able to wing the pitch (it will be more genuine if you do), but roleplay out your pitches with someone you feel comfortable with. What can really work well here is to write a whole lot of scenarios for the other person and have them pull one out at random and use for you to practice against. Each time you come across a new objection or blocking point then added it to the roleplay list.

The most important thing is to just grind through it. Sales is hard and unpleasant (nobody likes being rejected), but the more you do the better you will get at it. Set aside a time every day to do it and just do it.