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What I Learned in My First Year Year as a Solo Founder

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Re: What I Learned in My First Year Year as a Solo Founder

#51

Post by john_moscow »

proy24 wrote: post #29
todd3834 wrote: post #3

Thanks for sharing! I have spent a lot of time as a solo founder and I’ve spent time as a co-founder. I thought it might be helpful to contrast my experiences. As a solo founder I found that the highs were muted and the lows were amplified. This likely won’t be true for everyone but this was very true for me. As a solo founder I often felt like I had no idea if I was working on the right thing because there are so ma…

Solo founder is such a loaded term. Every freelancer, dropshipper, consultant is also a solo-founder. it's just not as glamorous as building a venture backed product.

There's lots of bullshit on both sides. "Building a venture-backed product" these days often means "being a full-time salesperson peddling grossly overvalued equity by trying to schmooze people who don't understand the underlying tech because that's the only way for the existing investors to exit".

Re: What I Learned in My First Year Year as a Solo Founder

#52

Post by james_s_tayler »

idlewords wrote: post #15

After running a thing by myself for nearly ten years, I would say the most important factor is anxiety management. People experience anxiety very differently, so it's hard to give advice, but without some way of dealing with and reducing this stress it is not possible to run a solo business for a sustained period of time. Some examples of what can make you anxious working solo: * A "lumpy" income stream that is hard…

This is so on the money.

Re: What I Learned in My First Year Year as a Solo Founder

#53

Post by tptacek »

idlewords wrote: post #15

After running a thing by myself for nearly ten years, I would say the most important factor is anxiety management. People experience anxiety very differently, so it's hard to give advice, but without some way of dealing with and reducing this stress it is not possible to run a solo business for a sustained period of time. Some examples of what can make you anxious working solo: * A "lumpy" income stream that is hard…

Not just for solo founders!

I remember after leaving a full-time job for the company we started in 2005 being really freaked out by the idea that I didn't really ever have vacations or sick days or any kind of paid time off, since it was all coming out of my pocket. It was a freaky feeling.

We'd have weekly partner calls, and we'd get to the part where we'd run through the pipeline and cash flow situation, and I'd hold the phone away from my face so I wouldn't hear any of it, which did not overly endear me to my partners.

Also: to this day, neither Jeremy nor Dave can call me on the phone without me having a small panic attack (a post-traumatic reaction to several business dramas we had); it's almost exactly the feeling you get when a family member calls at 1AM. Jeremy I understand, because we still work together, but Dave called me a few months ago, and I freaked right the fuck out.

Yeah this seems like the big important entrepreneurial essay someone needs to write. It's a much bigger deal than most of the advice you get about starting a company.

Re: What I Learned in My First Year Year as a Solo Founder

#54

Post by sk5t »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #42
mamitas wrote: post #37

On the flip side (to most of the comments here) I've done 2 failed startups as a cofounder and feel that things might have gone better if I just did it solo. Both of these were with people I knew for a while and initially had good chemistry with - but it ended up going sour over ultimately product/idea differences (both over 3 year stretches). I feel I did most of the work anyway (development work in a deep tech star…

The other person might feel the same way: “in the end I did most of the work of getting actual paying customers, the other cofounder just wrote some code...next time I’ll just hire someone to do the coding” Not saying you should do things any differently than planned next time, but we coders have an outsized view of our value sometimes. You can pretty easily hire someone to write code if you have the cash. But being…

> You can pretty easily hire someone to write code if you have the cash

Perhaps if you have quite a gigantic pile of cash. In most cases, trying to outsource your company's core product development is a recipe for very severe disappointment. The technical cofounder's role is to understand absolutely as much about the business as possible, and constantly integrate that evolving knowledge into the product. It's not really a job that stops and there is almost no way to compensate someone by the hour to do it... without a dragon's hoard to start.

Re: What I Learned in My First Year Year as a Solo Founder

#55

Post by [deleted] »

ru999gol wrote: post #44
nyrulez wrote: post #32

This resonated well with me - thank you for the article! I jumped into the fray late last year full time and it's been the most exciting (and nerve-racking) few months of my life. As the author says, I feel like I am learning new things, growing personally (and making mistakes) at 10x the speed! (and I live in Jersey City too) I would say the hardest part for me is balancing time between building and outreach. It's a…

frontend in python?

[deleted]

Re: What I Learned in My First Year Year as a Solo Founder

#56

Post by huxflux »

idlewords wrote: post #15

After running a thing by myself for nearly ten years, I would say the most important factor is anxiety management. People experience anxiety very differently, so it's hard to give advice, but without some way of dealing with and reducing this stress it is not possible to run a solo business for a sustained period of time. Some examples of what can make you anxious working solo: * A "lumpy" income stream that is hard…

This is a huge thing! I haven't seen it broken down like this before. Basically a checklist on how I felt for the last ten years. Jeez, BUSTED!

Re: What I Learned in My First Year Year as a Solo Founder

#58

Post by thedragonline »

ru999gol wrote: post #44
nyrulez wrote: post #32

This resonated well with me - thank you for the article! I jumped into the fray late last year full time and it's been the most exciting (and nerve-racking) few months of my life. As the author says, I feel like I am learning new things, growing personally (and making mistakes) at 10x the speed! (and I live in Jersey City too) I would say the hardest part for me is balancing time between building and outreach. It's a…

frontend in python?

I'm guessing the tkinter tooling that comes with Python.

Re: What I Learned in My First Year Year as a Solo Founder

#59

Post by sroussey »

whitepoplar wrote: post #23
idlewords wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Statistically your chances of succeeding are higher as a co-founder" is true in the sense that accelerators like YC have this as a selection criterion. I'd be curious to see if this is true without the selection effect.

There's this, https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/2-founders-are... , which I intuitively agree with, but I'm not sure how strong MBA-style research can be.

It’s difficult to know. Knowledge of such a study can get internalized into a founders psyche and become self fulfilling. And they are the type to do so (both seeking out this kind of report and being impacted by it).

Re: What I Learned in My First Year Year as a Solo Founder

#60

Post by todd3834 »

nyrulez wrote: post #33
todd3834 wrote: post #3

Thanks for sharing! I have spent a lot of time as a solo founder and I’ve spent time as a co-founder. I thought it might be helpful to contrast my experiences. As a solo founder I found that the highs were muted and the lows were amplified. This likely won’t be true for everyone but this was very true for me. As a solo founder I often felt like I had no idea if I was working on the right thing because there are so ma…

How do you find the "right" co-founder? Or it doesn't really matter as long as you trust them and they are good enough? I have had some folks in my network offer to join as "co-founders" but it's been tricky to figure out if I should just go for it because "co-founders are awesome".

That’s a great question. I don’t think there is one perfect answer. However I would suggest that you find someone whom you’ve worked with at some point so you know if you work together well. If you don’t have previous experience working with a potential co-founder then I would suggest you try hiring them for a short project to get a sense. Or even better start something new with them so you’re both equally invested and if it doesn’t work out then you still have your original project.
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