As a single founder with a strong idea, how would you about founding your startup and possibly attracting co-founders and talent to work with you.
Ask HN: How to found a company as a single founder?
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Re: Ask HN: How to found a company as a single founder?
#2Serial single founder here. Start building and start selling. If you can’t deliver a product to a paying customer solo then you’re not cut out to be a sole founder.
Re: Ask HN: How to found a company as a single founder?
#3If you want to attract people, you need to either pitch the idea in public (or build an MVP) to gather attention and possible partners. Or find people with similar interests and reveal the idea to them. You could also find someone through networking or [1] forums.
Show a good idea, with good leadership and people will follow...
Re: Ask HN: How to found a company as a single founder?
#4starting building on the idea yourself so you have more to talk about / show.
co-founders are usually people you already know. so talk to them and start persuading or start meeting more people.
employees are attracted to salaries, offer it (get funding if needed).
if you have no idea what's involved in working on a startup, maybe watch the startup school videos.
Re: Ask HN: How to found a company as a single founder?
#5Serial single founder here. Start building and start selling. If you can’t deliver a product to a paying customer solo then you’re not cut out to be a sole founder.
+1
Re: Ask HN: How to found a company as a single founder?
#6[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How to found a company as a single founder?
#7Serial single founder here. Start building and start selling. If you can’t deliver a product to a paying customer solo then you’re not cut out to be a sole founder.
This pretty much sums up everything. I had a similar problem trying to sell my products. If you're a solo founder learn how to sell first. Finding cool marketing strategies is great, but people need to see real faces before buying your products. It is not always true, but in general that is what I've seen so far.
Re: Ask HN: How to found a company as a single founder?
#8There are two parts to having a good idea. One is the idea itself, but it's also critical that you have expertise in the domain. My company helps freelance writers and photographers get paid. The CEO was a publisher who had this problem and decided to solve it. He reached out in his circle for a programmer to build it, and he found me. The idea was good enough for me to put time into it, and we had a clear path forward for turning it into a business. My point is that if you have domain knowledge and a genuinely good idea, you'll have no trouble finding co-founders.
Re: Ask HN: How to found a company as a single founder?
#9First, don't. Actually, its good you ask about attracting co-founders and talent, that's a critical part of success. You're going to want a strong, like-minded cofounder and strong team to help you succeed. The journey is more fun and will likely be more successful with he right team...So, how? Network.....
Re: Ask HN: How to found a company as a single founder?
#10(this is hard to answer well, without knowing your background or the nature of your idea)
I'd recommend starting to develop the idea. If you are non-technical, then begin speaking to potential users and customers, and building relationships i.e. do business development.
If you are technical, it doesn't matter, do the above too. You can also take part of your time to actually begin prototyping a v1 of your product. But remember, your goal is to start a company, not a cool technical demo, so prioritize business development.
Once you have done this, congrats, you have some real momentum on your idea and have either gotten validation from real users and customers or know what needs to be changed and improved. You are now in a stronger position to start talking to people. Its much easier to attract people to your startup if you can demonstrate your idea has some traction.