“Is having a co-founder necessary for startup success? #CoFounder Myth
Have you heard about the co-founder myth for startups?
Have you wondered if having a co-founder is essential for your tech startup’s success?
Debunking the co-founder myth: exploring the pros and cons
I am a recent VC funded solo startup founder. I am right now trying to figure out a cofounder or similar to add. I need someone to bounce ideas off and share the load, and I think having multiple points of view and skills would create a better product.
Good teams are stronger than good individuals. If you want to solo, at least be a technical founder.
From YC…
“As YC Group Partners, we’re consistently surprised that anyone looking to start a VC-funded tech company would need to be convinced they need a technical co-founder. The usual arguments are that no-code tools, part-time consultants, or dev shops can allow anyone with a business idea to start a tech startup and raise money.
“New tools make starting a venture-funded tech company easy for anyone to do!” is an inspiring story that gets clicks on LinkedIn… but based on the thousands of companies YC has funded over the years, companies lacking a technical co-founder underperform.
In this episode of Dalton + Michael, we’ll discuss exactly why that is and why recruiting a technical co-founder is the single biggest way to create value as someone trying to start the next big thing.”
Honestly it is. Startups are hard, so having someone to do it with makes it less annoying to do. Especially when the person is as locked in as you are
The only thing worse than not having a co-founder is having the wrong co-founder. It might be hard to stay motivated on your worst days while all on your own, but the wrong co-founder will slowly drain all your motivation.
If you find that special person who you believe in and want to go on the journey with, go for it. Otherwise, just keep going on your own.
An argument can be made that a cofounder is necessary to be funded.
Think about it from an investor’s standpoint, if you’re a single individual and you burn out, who is there to keep you going? In the worst case scenario that you give up (which is more common in solo founders), who else would know how to keep the company going?
Personally, I believe cofounders are worth it as long as you work together really well. For my cofounders, we’ve worked together on a variety of projects over the past few years. We’d worked together in non-cofounder capacities even before that and were good friends even longer. Picking a good cofounder is a skill and oftentimes something that’s better to be done slowly and methodically, even with friends.
The only answer I can give is “It depends”. Founding a startup is an incredible amount of work. It’s hard for me to imagine a solo founder with no connections, money, or deep domain experience being able to build something from the ground up. It’s not impossible. There are 8 billion people on this planet so it’s probably happened way more than you’d expect. It’s just really really hard.
Having said that the more resources you have the easier it gets. With deep enough pockets you can just hire people that would ordinarily be working for equity as a co-founder. With deep connections a solo founder might be able to rally her network to build something from the ground up without giving up too much equity. With deep domain knowledge they may spend less time building an MVP and more time to selling since they’re easily recognized as an expert in the domain.