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The Truth about the Lone Startup Founder

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Re: The Truth about the Lone Startup Founder

#2

Post by zaidf »

I don't think anyone is arguing that lone founder startups can NEVER succeed; the argument is lone founder startups have a lesser success rate, probably.

And in a game of numbers, it easy to see why YC would want to focus on multi-partner startups over single when there is no shortage of them.

-Zaid

Re: The Truth about the Lone Startup Founder

#3

Post by Readmore »

zaidf wrote: post #2

I don't think anyone is arguing that lone founder startups can NEVER succeed; the argument is lone founder startups have a lesser success rate, probably. And in a game of numbers, it easy to see why YC would want to focus on multi-partner startups over single when there is no shortage of them. -Zaid

I'm not trying to downplay the importance of co-founders so much as try to show people what they need to be looking for in cofounders as well as what they need themselves. YC has every right to want multiple founders, but for someone who doesn't get in, or doesn't apply, this information could help them know where to focus their time.

Re: The Truth about the Lone Startup Founder

#4

Post by mukund »

The author has been bang on target. Its quite possible to be one man army and still pull off with a great company but it would take time and this lone guy must work 3 to 5 people's work. Second thing is, having more people who match the same level of thinking helps hammering out loop holes and building better products.

Re: The Truth about the Lone Startup Founder

#5

Post by nonrecursive »

Here are a few resources for spiffing up your "artist" and "seller" hats:

=== The Artist ===

. The Non-Designer's Design Book, by Robin Williams. This short, easy read details four essential design principles that will help you consciously communicate better visually. It's also available on O'Reilly's safari service.

. Universal Principles of Design: 100 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach Through Design. This book will help you build your design vocabulary and better understand concepts in design that you likely haven't thought of. It will help you describe the ways in which this page - http://www.sandstromdesign.com/nav.html - sucks (it lacks external consistency and it contains interference effects, to begin with). The book has a great format, describing a topic on one page with visual examples on the following page. The descriptions are short of enough that you can read them in about 4 minutes.

. http://www.hallwaytesting.com - this is actually my own site. You can post your site for usability feedback and give usability feedback. Live usability tests allow you to get more details, but the users on my site also give valuable feedback, and it doesn't cost you any money or nearly as much time. I try to give feedback for as many sites as possible and am usually pretty thorough about it. Users have told me that the site has helped them a lot.

=== The Seller ===

. http://www.marketingexperiments.com . This site is absolutely the best web development resource I've found, ever. It contains articles on developing a unique value proposition, doing competitive analysis on the Internet, and of course actually marketing your site using PPC, SEO, and other online marketing techniques. Perhaps the most valuable thing I learned from this site is that online marketing is online testing.

. How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie. For a long time I didn't want to read this book because I thought doing so would make me a sleaze ball. Instead it's made me a more effective communicator. When you think about it, honing our skills in most areas involves learning how to communicate with other humans better. As The Tech Wizard it's essential that you communicate the purpose of your code. As The Artist it's essential you communicate the purpose of a site and each of its elements. As The Seller you must know how to communicate value. Dale Carnegie's book will show you how to effectively communicate value.

Re: The Truth about the Lone Startup Founder

#9

Post by webwright »

Interesting post!

Obviously, a person can theoretically have all of the skills to pull off a startup alone (though I can count the number of people I know who are good coders AND good UI designers on one hand).

The big plus of a co-founder (IMHO) or two is motivation and energy.

Oh, and intelligence. Two good brains are generally more than twice as smart as one. :-)

Re: The Truth about the Lone Startup Founder

#10

Post by Readmore »

far33d wrote: post #8

Even 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.

That's true, but I've found that it is much easier to have friends who will give you different opinions than to find someone committed enough to be a co founder. Surround yourself with people you respect and trust and you'll get the different viewpoints you need.
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