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You can now use YC's Startup School directory to find a cofounder

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Re: You can now use YC's Startup School directory to find a cofounder

#111

Post by EGreg »

TuringNYC wrote: post #110
EGreg wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is silly. Most startups funded by these VC types are “go big or go home” and “fail fast” types. All this stuff you said about the company failing is an what the VC pushes you to do 9 out of 10 times and move on. The money lost came from various sources including investors who take risks for a living. How do you say that is worse than kids growing up in a broken home and many lives affected? An entrepeneur can ha…

My comment was that "walking away" every time one has a founder conflict is not without financial consequences. I didn't actually make any comments about marriages being more or less important or impactful than startups.

Ah I see. I saw your comment in the context of the pg comment being debated:

“I'm with pg on this, starting a company with someone is a bigger commitment than getting married”

Re: You can now use YC's Startup School directory to find a cofounder

#112

Post by codesushi42 »

eloff wrote: post #106
codesushi42 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What data? OP's link is a silly TC article without any negative examples (failure rates of single vs pairs).

That's still more than you offered to the contrary.

Bad data isn't any more useful kid.

Re: You can now use YC's Startup School directory to find a cofounder

#113

Post by nl »

codesushi42 wrote: post #77
nl wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Successful single founders are very rare. It's unclear they are remarkably more rare than other types. The data appears to show that single founders are the second most successful arrangement after pairs. https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/26/co-founders-optional/

Second most doesn't mean anything when you're talking about three arrangements, realistically. I would like it to be true that solo founders have just as much chance of success. I have been unable to find a cofounder for years, and I am not biased against solo companies. People are unpredictable, and even wildly successful companies have some disheartening back stories. I've learned that from books like Idea Man (Mic…

Second most doesn't mean anything when you're talking about three arrangements, realistically.

Exactly. You have expressed the argument perfectly.

There seems to be little link between the number of founders and success.

The rest of your post seems to have a simple counter argument: hire people.

Re: You can now use YC's Startup School directory to find a cofounder

#114

Post by tyleo »

priyankt wrote: post #59

Just like “Who is hiring” thread, a “Looking for co-founder” thread every quarter or 6 months might be helpful to the community? That can help start the conversation which is the first step towards finding the right co-founder. You can also get a good idea about a person by looking at their submission/comment history on HN.

Someone posted one of these recently. I am looking for a cofounder and don’t find one but still found the thread interesting. I think it would be good for the community.

Re: You can now use YC's Startup School directory to find a cofounder

#115

Post by eloff »

codesushi42 wrote: post #112
eloff wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's still more than you offered to the contrary.

Bad data isn't any more useful kid.

It doesn't tell how many companies with single founders fail vs teams, but it shows that single founder companies comprise about half of successful startups on crunchbase. It's not perfect, but it's hardly bad either.

Re: You can now use YC's Startup School directory to find a cofounder

#116

Post by codesushi42 »

nl wrote: post #113
codesushi42 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Second most doesn't mean anything when you're talking about three arrangements, realistically. I would like it to be true that solo founders have just as much chance of success. I have been unable to find a cofounder for years, and I am not biased against solo companies. People are unpredictable, and even wildly successful companies have some disheartening back stories. I've learned that from books like Idea Man (Mic…

Second most doesn't mean anything when you're talking about three arrangements, realistically. Exactly. You have expressed the argument perfectly. There seems to be little link between the number of founders and success. The rest of your post seems to have a simple counter argument: hire people.

Depends on the scale of success. A successful lifestyle business can be achieved by a solo founder. A unicorn or company with large exit is less likely.

An employee is never going to be as personally invested as a cofounder. But the upside is you can terminate them if your working relationship goes awry.

Re: You can now use YC's Startup School directory to find a cofounder

#117

Post by codesushi42 »

eloff wrote: post #115
codesushi42 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad data isn't any more useful kid.

It doesn't tell how many companies with single founders fail vs teams, but it shows that single founder companies comprise about half of successful startups on crunchbase. It's not perfect, but it's hardly bad either.

>It doesn't tell how many companies with single founders fail vs teams

Exactly, that missing information is what makes the data bad. Negative examples are needed to make any meaningful comparison between single vs team. You're missing an entire distribution showing success vs failure. You gave a perfect example of selection bias.

You would make a terrible statistician, or maybe you're highly skilled in the art of How to Lie with Statistics.

Re: You can now use YC's Startup School directory to find a cofounder

#118

Post by maram »

ekc wrote: post #6

"Cofounder dating" is a bad idea. Cofounders should be friends before starting the company. - pg https://twitter.com/paulg/status/852493839176785921

while I personally agree with pg here, I think we shouldn’t make any rules.

we often forget how many things started...netscape founders (jim clark and marc andreessen) met through an email!

Re: You can now use YC's Startup School directory to find a cofounder

#119

Post by friendscallmejw »

haggy wrote: post #107
friendscallmejw wrote: post #92

As someone with two acquisitions under their belt (now technically three since IBM acquired Red Hat, though I wasn't part of that deal in any significant capacity) I can say that the next time I look for a cofounder, I'm going straight to the YC Startup School directory. Nothing like a cofounder with no real world experience, YC level entitlement, and a history of running/failing out of an overcapitalized tech-startu…

Your sarcasm and snark is next level. Well done.

Thank you, I put extra effort into it on that comment.
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