I don't think a lone founder needs to be an artist at all. I am planning to hire someone to make my site shine once I have the functionality where I want it to be. That probably also applies for selling. If you have a good idea, and enough drive, why not just hire people instead of giving away equity?
The Truth about the Lone Startup Founder
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Re: The Truth about the Lone Startup Founder
#12I don't think a lone founder needs to be an artist at all. I am planning to hire someone to make my site shine once I have the functionality where I want it to be. That probably also applies for selling. If you have a good idea, and enough drive, why not just hire people instead of giving away equity?
Good luck. I'd love to hear how you feel after you've launched.
Re: The Truth about the Lone Startup Founder
#13Even if you are the perfect seller, artist, and coder, you will still only have one opinion on everything. You need someone to be right when you are wrong, and wrong when you are right.
Yes, and at the end of the day a decision has to be made.
This is where companies get in trouble- the founders have different opinions. I've seen two companies struggle because founders differed... and I've known one company where the founder knew what was going on and was clearly in charge (which there were some founding employees, there was no question of who made the decisions)... that company succeeded until the VC forced a new CEO who couldn't make a decision to save his life on us....
More people to spread out the early work is good. Multiple founders can be ok.
But one needs to be in charge.
Re: The Truth about the Lone Startup Founder
#14I don't think a lone founder needs to be an artist at all. I am planning to hire someone to make my site shine once I have the functionality where I want it to be. That probably also applies for selling. If you have a good idea, and enough drive, why not just hire people instead of giving away equity?
Exactly my plan. And as joelonsoftware pointed out, some "design" problems are really engineering problems (like the wheel of the ipod). I can solve those, and then some artist can create fancy logos, fonts and stylesheets.
Re: The Truth about the Lone Startup Founder
#15I don't think a lone founder needs to be an artist at all. I am planning to hire someone to make my site shine once I have the functionality where I want it to be. That probably also applies for selling. If you have a good idea, and enough drive, why not just hire people instead of giving away equity?
Exactly my plan. And as joelonsoftware pointed out, some "design" problems are really engineering problems (like the wheel of the ipod). I can solve those, and then some artist can create fancy logos, fonts and stylesheets.
Re: The Truth about the Lone Startup Founder
#16I don't think a lone founder needs to be an artist at all. I am planning to hire someone to make my site shine once I have the functionality where I want it to be. That probably also applies for selling. If you have a good idea, and enough drive, why not just hire people instead of giving away equity?
What do you mean by functionality? If you think the shiny surface of your product can be that much of an after-thought (i.e. not considered alongside the functionality you choose to code), you either have wonderfully abstracted code (or lots of useless code) (in which case you're delaying it because you can), or you have a different definition of Artist than I do (in which case you're delaying it because you've confused design with gloss).
Re: The Truth about the Lone Startup Founder
#17Even if you are the perfect seller, artist, and coder, you will still only have one opinion on everything. You need someone to be right when you are wrong, and wrong when you are right.
I agree with Readmore that you can still find that kind of feedback from other people you know.
Perhaps another big benefit of having a co-founder is the mutual moral support you can give each other. Sure, you can hire a designer to make your logo, but it's pretty unlikely you'll be able to hire someone to cheer you on night and day. It would be even weirder to hire someone to celebrate your victories with, and have that person understand first-hand what each triumph means.
Re: The Truth about the Lone Startup Founder
#18I don't think a lone founder needs to be an artist at all. I am planning to hire someone to make my site shine once I have the functionality where I want it to be. That probably also applies for selling. If you have a good idea, and enough drive, why not just hire people instead of giving away equity?
What do you mean by functionality? If you think the shiny surface of your product can be that much of an after-thought (i.e. not considered alongside the functionality you choose to code), you either have wonderfully abstracted code (or lots of useless code) (in which case you're delaying it because you can), or you have a different definition of Artist than I do (in which case you're delaying it because you've confu…
I agree with that. Artist doesn't mean someone to make the logos, it means some one to design your site and make it pleasing to the users. I've found that the sooner that happens in the process the better. In fact I'm starting to lean toward the 37Signals method of making the layout work before it's even attached to the code. Thinking about how things happen from the user's pov can really help your final product.
Re: The Truth about the Lone Startup Founder
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do you mean by functionality? If you think the shiny surface of your product can be that much of an after-thought (i.e. not considered alongside the functionality you choose to code), you either have wonderfully abstracted code (or lots of useless code) (in which case you're delaying it because you can), or you have a different definition of Artist than I do (in which case you're delaying it because you've confu…
I agree with that. Artist doesn't mean someone to make the logos, it means some one to design your site and make it pleasing to the users. I've found that the sooner that happens in the process the better. In fact I'm starting to lean toward the 37Signals method of making the layout work before it's even attached to the code. Thinking about how things happen from the user's pov can really help your final product.
I've come to realize that how things happen from the user's pov / what the user sees IS your product. That's what the user's paying for. The user cares as much about what your app purports to do as how your app does it. The how determines whether the user will save more time/money/resources with your app than without it.
That said, I do agree with original commentor that it's possible to get all the functionality working (the interface, the AJAX, the domain model) and then have someone take your visually uninspired HTML+CSS and turn it into something beautiful. Sometimes that's all a hacker will need, and sometimes a hacker will need much more.
Re: The Truth about the Lone Startup Founder
#20I've been reading the "E-Myth," which also describes three roles of the founder: Technician, Manager, and Entrepreneur. (These roughly corresond to the roles you outline). The first part of this book is an excellent analysis of why many startup companies fail. The rest of the book's advice gets worse, and by the end it is a naked advertisement for the author's seminars and consulting services.
Get it from the library.