On being a solo founder
In response to “Single Founders or Co-Founders?” by Ben Yoskovitz
I recently read this blog post by Ben Yoskovitz over at the Instigator Blog about single founders or co founders. I’ve followed Ben online for years since meeting him early in my last startup: Will Pwn 4 Food’s career back in the first iteration of the Velocity Garage.
Here is my response:
This is a pretty hot topic with me as I’m a solo founder and have been for a number of years. Living in the pretty active startup community that is Kitchener-Waterloo, there are no shortage of teams and companies to observe and entrepreneurs to talk to. I just came out of running Will Pwn 4 Food for about 4+ years where I was the only guy in charge and I like to think I pushed as hard as I could and made a pretty good run all things considered. People who know me know I’m an all in kind of guy and that not having another person beside me won’t stop me from doing what I want to do. Have I been envious of other rock star teams who’ve rocketed past me, of course, have I doubted my future because I appear to be missing what everyone else has, yep, but I’ve had a huge network of people to lean on, talk to, get advice from and help fuel me forward. It’s not about fitting some magic mould, people can do anything if they put their minds forward to it, so being alone isn’t going to stop me, but yeah it’s frustrating when other teams have twice to triple the man power who are well rounded and equally as balls deep, but you work with what you have.
Entrepreneurship is about passion, it’s taking something to the next level, exploiting a gap in the market, proving you were right, or adjusting until you can say you are. It’s forging your own path, and not everyone has the same path as you. Have I doubted myself when looking at other teams with tight knit successful co-founding super teams, yeah of course, but it’s never stopped me from doing what I can. Almost nothing makes me more angry when someone says I can’t do it on my own, or will even deny me the right to speak or apply because I don’t have a co-founder, I find it narrow minded and discriminatory. If anything it just drives me further forward.
Of course I see the value in a solid team, the advantages you gain, especially when you are all talented in different areas. I’ve tried getting co-founders at times, and it’s just never worked out for me. Even when applying to YC, it’s all about the team, how they worked together, what projects did they do etc., and how those who have worked together for a long time have a better chance at succeeding. That’s all well and good, except not everyone has those types of people in their lives. I may be ambitious and entrepreneurial, and I may have brilliant friends in either engineering or business, but that doesn’t mean they want to do a startup or take any risks, and I know better than to try and sell them on it. Co-founders are a huge double edge sword, again YC says it’s the biggest cause of company failures. Surprisingly enough I got an interview to YC as a solo founder having already gone through an incubator. I didn’t make it in, the rub being despite one or two common problems, being a solo founder pushed it over the edge. I was just happy to be invited!
An entrepreneur is someone who does what they can with the resources or constraints they have to work in. If the minimum bar is a resource they simply don’t have (a co-founder in this case), do you discount them and throw them in the trash and ignore the passion and ability they bring to the table, or do you see what they can do? For many investors and incubators there are enough multi people teams to just hedge on the side of a well rounded team. If an investor really likes a person, then they’ll make a decision based on that. I raised an angel round pre beta because people liked me, I won 2nd place at launchpad50k and got the people’s choice award because people liked me and my passion. I got into the first cohort of Hyperdrive because the people saw what I had already done and saw my passion, and I imagine that’s how I got a YC interview as well. I’ve managed to raise angel money on 5 different occasions as a solo founder. I definitely think being solo makes it much harder to get past that first barrier where people won’t even look at you, but I’ve at least proven to myself that I can get past that and do something. It’s still hard despite all that, but not impossible.
I probably should have just written a blog post (this is that post, totally meta) because I have a lot to share and I don’t honestly see very many other solo founders around, or those that have actually taken it as far as I have, but I caution anyone to say they don’t work. They are probably harder, I’ve never seen the other side so I can’t say for sure, and it’s a trade off, you don’t have an additional marriage to manage during it all. It’s definitely a roller coaster of emotions either way and having solid mentors is key.
I’m also a computer scientist from the University of Waterloo who took every extra course as business and speech communication and did entrepreneurial co-op terms specifically to train myself to be able to run a business one day. Those who are lacking those skills, either technical or business are at a strong disadvantage. I live for entrepreneurship and business and I can code my own product, that sets me in a spot where my weaknesses aren’t as crippling as someone who can’t create their idea, or someone who can create but can’t talk to people or understand a simple business model.
Being a solo founder also doesn’t mean being alone, I always had people hired as virtual employees, regular employees and eventually had a team of 7 people. It doesn’t mean you can’t lean on good people early on if they are willing to go along with you for the ride, but just maybe not as deep as you are.
Being a single founder is totally doable, but your background and resources determine how much harder it will be then the next solo founder. Find a good network to help you and lean on, and you can still rock it if you are passionate enough. One day I’d love to have someone I trust enough with a complimentary skill set who aligns with my goals, vision and passion, but I think it’ll take a long time because when you don’t want to work for another company, you spend less time making those long term working relationships that can blossom into co-founder territory. You become a victim of your circumstances in that regard. Engineers spend every class with the same group of people for 4-5 years and make great bonds. Computer scientists are lucky to find a group of people they ever see again in classes. Some people worked together at awesome tech co for 3 years, some people end up on dud teams or in shit positions where they don’t meet the right types of people. If you truly hate working for other people, it makes it even harder, welcome to entrepreneurship. Again those who push it as solo founders haven’t let this kind of thing stop them. They need to take up all the bravery and risk on their own and push it, and that says something.
I’m now running a new startup as a solo guy and taking the extra step to see if I can do it without investors (at least early on), and now I’m learning the hardware space, so a ton of new challenges, but not something I can’t overcome (I’ve already got a full engineering plan ready to go with a team who can help make it happen)! Since I’ve written a story about myself which is now probably longer than the original blog post, I feel like I can at least point people into a direction where they could ask me questions about being a solo founder and the challenges I’ve faced if they wanted: http://about.me/ivan. I’m always happy to share my learnings and view points.
For those how are interested in what I’m doing now, I’m working on a new hardware startup called This Is Your Out. We have one simple mission and that’s to get you out of situations you don’t want to be in!
Simply press the button to create your own “saved by the bell” moment that’ll have you saying “Sorry, I gotta take this” and snickering as you walk away to freedom. Save time and feel like 007.
We are hitting Indiegogo on July 15th, so keep an eye out and check out our first of 4 videos below:
