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Why I'll be a solo founder next time

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Re: Why I'll be a solo founder next time

#101

Post by adventured »

"Because companies with almost identical products and value propositions succeeded."

There's so much more that goes into a product and its success or failure than what such a simple statement would imply. That's a very thin premise to launch such a big position with.

One word rather sinks it in fact: luck

I've yet to run across an interview with a candid successful person that didn't count dumb luck as an important part of the equation. Right place, right time, right marketing, right people, right choices, right capital, and dumb luck.

Also, no two products or companies offer identical products or value propositions. That means the author isn't being objective about the situation one way or another.

Re: Why I'll be a solo founder next time

#102

Post by startupstella »

I would agree with many of the other commenters but chime in with the "correlation does not prove causation" there are many other factors why the other startups could have failed: the other companies were better capitalized, had better processes, founders that worked together better, etc.

Re: Why I'll be a solo founder next time

#103

Post by w0rd-driven »

doobius wrote: post #93
w0rd-driven wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd suspect there are a number of people in your shoes and in the shoes of this entire thread. I read these responses and thought "Hmm I wonder what it is they're doing. Maybe I could help or at least offer some brain power?" then realized clicking usernames revealed dick-all about any one of you. I had a thought "Why hasn't there been a matchmaking service for entrepreneurs?" A quick Google search gave me the answer…

It might be a poor idea, but I've planned to hold off on actively searching until I get more funding

I took comments on a post to mean "I'm ready for" when I should've realized a lot of what we do as people is talk ourselves up to something.

I wouldn't consider it to be a poor idea at all. I was primarily trying to offer suggestions to help with passively searching when the need arose but I couldn't get around being specific, realizing it could partially sound mean or negative when that wasn't what I was going for at all.

Re: Why I'll be a solo founder next time

#104

Post by adventured »

jt2190 wrote: post #94
ghc wrote: post #34

If you're not good at building a founding team, how will you excel at building a company? Technology and design are great, but companies are the people that they are comprised of. There's nothing wrong with being a solo founder because being one doesn't mean you can't build a good team. But you obviously have issues with team building, so I'd work on that first or found a company with someone who is actually good at…

> If you're not good at building a founding team, how will > you excel at building a company? This falsely equates "team" (a group of people) with "company" (a business venture). If the business venture requires a team of people to tackle it, then obviously putting together that team is a prerequisite. However, there are many business ventures that don't require a team, and developing better team building skills in t…

TwitPic and Plenty of Fish come to mind (even Instagram had a very small team for a long time)

It's remarkable how far you can scale certain types of web businesses now with one or just a few people and a pile of hardware.

If you're a social person and you like teams, clearly as always that's a viable path. If you're not, and you prefer going mostly solo, it's also clear that that's a viable path. The variable is you can only build certain types of businesses going solo.

Re: Why I'll be a solo founder next time

#106

Post by andrewflnr »

whiddershins wrote: post #73
ChuckMcM wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect this is a key insight. There is a colloquialism for a company of people all trying to be 'the boss' called "Too many Chiefs, not enough Indians" (in reference to the tribal organization of Native American tribes, where in fact there was exactly one Chief who was the final arbiter) but another spin on this is "Too many Medicine men, not enough Indians." The "fantasy" life of a startup founder is that they se…

""(in reference to the tribal organization of Native American tribes, where in fact there was exactly one Chief who was the final arbiter)"" AFAIK absolutely false. It is also a gross generalization about a diverse group of people with differing sociopolitical structures. I would suggest reading "Empire of the Summer Moon" for an example of a famous and incredibly egalitarian American construct, or just read about Ir…

Perhaps a better illustration would be "too many captains and not enough sailors." I understand ships are much more strongly and consistently hierarchical. We already use nautical analogies for businesses, anyway.

Re: Why I'll be a solo founder next time

#108

Post by jonnathanson »

regal wrote: post #50
RyanZAG wrote: post #3

Interesting points, but a lot of it is contradictory to the advice you hear from successful startups, so I'd take this with a grain of salt. "I believe that my previous two ventures failed mainly because of the founding team (which I’m included in). How do I know? Because companies with almost identical products and value propositions succeeded afterwards. " I'm not sure if you're drawing the correct lesson there. So…

I'll chime in here and say that reading this article sounded exactly like reading about my own 3 previous (failed) partnerships. My sole successful venture has been solo all along (not including employees), and has outlasted the rises and falls of the other businesses (during the amateur entrepreneur "too many fingers in too many pies" phase). I don't think I'd do a partnership again. But maybe I just don't play well…

Generally speaking, it's very hard to convince the right person to co-found a startup. It's comparatively easy to convince the right-for-now person to join on a noncommittal basis. It's not easy to patiently and persistently search for the former, when the latter is so much quicker to come by.

I failed at founding a startup under similar circumstances. This was back in school, on the verge of graduation, when the idea struck me and I decided to go for it. My timing was terrible, given that my would-be co-founders had full-time jobs lined up. Joining me, and turning down our various offers in pursuit of the startup, was a proposition somewhere between slightly insane and certifiably so.

And so I gave everyone a pass. I "hired" a bunch of them on a part-time basis -- knowing that they'd be leaving to start their day jobs in about two months, and, therefore, inadvertently giving myself two months to generate enough traction to convince them to stick around. God, I was so naive. But I'm glad I learned the lesson at a (relatively) young age.

I don't blame any of them for the failure of that short-lived startup. I blame myself. In retrospect, I realized that my own commitment to the startup had been no deeper than theirs. If it had been, I'd have hustled a lot harder to find committed co-founders.

Re: Why I'll be a solo founder next time

#109

Post by goodcanadian »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #66
regal wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll chime in here and say that reading this article sounded exactly like reading about my own 3 previous (failed) partnerships. My sole successful venture has been solo all along (not including employees), and has outlasted the rises and falls of the other businesses (during the amateur entrepreneur "too many fingers in too many pies" phase). I don't think I'd do a partnership again. But maybe I just don't play well…

I suspect this is a key insight. There is a colloquialism for a company of people all trying to be 'the boss' called "Too many Chiefs, not enough Indians" (in reference to the tribal organization of Native American tribes, where in fact there was exactly one Chief who was the final arbiter) but another spin on this is "Too many Medicine men, not enough Indians." The "fantasy" life of a startup founder is that they se…

I generally prefer "Too many cooks; not enough dishwashers," or some variation on that theme.

Re: Why I'll be a solo founder next time

#110

Post by beat »

w0rd-driven wrote: post #86
beat wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two months? Just wait. I'm 9 months in solo, and day-jobbing to pay for the bootstrap. It's incredibly exhausting. If I could find a co-founder or two, I'd be thrilled. But finding someone really worth their weight hasn't happened yet. And I'm not going to just sit there and ignore this opportunity just because I can't find someone to hold my hand while I'm doing it. I'm going to get it out the door, even if I have t…

I'd suspect there are a number of people in your shoes and in the shoes of this entire thread. I read these responses and thought "Hmm I wonder what it is they're doing. Maybe I could help or at least offer some brain power?" then realized clicking usernames revealed dick-all about any one of you. I had a thought "Why hasn't there been a matchmaking service for entrepreneurs?" A quick Google search gave me the answer…

I've seriously offered co-founder positions to two people. One is actively involved, but not as a co-founder. He's my patent/IP lawyer, and an old friend I studied CS with in college. He doesn't want to be fully involved in a startup for a variety of good reasons, but he's willing to take equity for a little private practice work. The other is a former co-worker who would be my easy first choice for CTO. He's considering it, but hasn't decided yet and I'm not rushing him. He has good reasons to hesitate (like baby #5 on the way).

I've also done some "matchmaking" through networking and introductions, but I haven't yet met anyone else I'm willing to trust with it, or whom is ready to go for it (there have been several candidates). So I'm not in a rush to find a co-founder, and not making it my first priority. If it happens, it happens.

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