Successful Solo Founders

Note* Since publishing this, a research study came out by MIT with more information and data on this. See 2 founders are not always better than one and Sole Survivors. Published January and May 2018

While fundraising in Silicon Valley, I found a lot of investors used language around ‘superstition’, including investors often being ‘spooked’ by one thing or another, without taking the time to get to know well positioned founders. This has included solo founders.

While I understand how rules can make things easier, I am not sure that Silicon Valley’s ‘rules’ are science based facts around what actually works in investing. I think it’s important to understand the reasons behind these ‘rules’ so everyone can make better decisions and stop missing good opportunities because of non-science based ‘rules’ or superstitions... and to be honest, my grandma, a native American, isn’t even this superstitious or rely on this many signs to make decisions in life.

Paul Graham says that solo founders are a sign of one of two things: a vote of no confidence and it being hard to start a start-up. That is it. This is the reason why it’s listed as a reason that start-ups fail… Because it can be tough and because no one believes in them. What about the things that are harder to fix, co-founder disagreements?