Can you make it as a solo founder or do you really need a co-founder?

Investors often look for businesses run by co-founders with complementary skills. Maybe one person is a marketing genius and the other has deep technical experience.
That’s why most business advisors tell people to pair up in order to get funding.

Co-founders can be great, but many entrepreneurs waste their time searching for a perfect match, just because investors often favor these teams. This mentality can lead to ill-fated partnerships, ugly splits down the road, and lost revenues — instead of better products.

I almost had a co-founder in Jotform. A friend and I talked seriously about it, but the partnership didn’t work out in the end. It’s fine. There are no hard feelings, and I’ve been happy to build the company on my own terms.

By earning more than we spend, I can hire incredibly smart people to help me, without giving away half of the business. It’s a great way to work.

You don’t have to give away a big chunk of your company.

I definitely don't think you need a co-founder. Especially if you have the technical chops to wear all the necessary hats.

In my experience, difficult projects require both technical skills (e.g. coding) and emotional skills (e.g. grit, motivation, etc.). And I've personally found that a lot of the most important benefits of working with a [good] co-founder flow toward the emotional side: You have someone to keep you accountable. You have a second set of eyes to notice your blind spots. You have someone who notices your cognitive biases and can keep you a bit more objective.

This sounds a little abstract and flimsy to a lot of people, but the reality is that we are social animals, and a lot of what helps us perform at a high level is… social.

I think it depends on your goals, to be honest. I've purposefully kept my company solo for upwards of 5 years. I'm able to make more money than I ever thought possible because I'm not splitting profits with employees or co-founders, and in my opinion it's far less stressful.

The caveat here is that you must be a self-starter, and able to fulfill what is needed to make your business successful, and to sustain that success.

So ultimately, I don't think there is a single right answer. It largely depends on the person and their capabilities, mixed with their goals surrounding their business.

You can definitely go solo but after a while you may wish you had someone to share the struggles and be able to take some time off (as in completely off).

I have been running PentesterLab solo for around 6 years now (+ 4 more years as a free offering) and I sometime wish I took a cofounder to be able to take some time off and relax.

Being solo for the whole time meant:

• checking and answering emails every morning and evening at least (week day, week-end, public holiday, honeymoon...),
• managing incidents from time to time (on Christmas day once),
• always carrying a laptop in case of incidents, ​
  ​- no off-grid holiday.

There are also a lot of good things about being solo. Look at it like getting married, if you find the right cofounder, go for it. If you don't, there is no issue about doing it on your own.

Finding a cofounder have opened a new doors to me.
I never thought I need a cofounder since a guy dropped literally from nowhere and asked me if I want to be a cofounder in his project. I was lucky this great person have found me as we complement each other as skills, and also as characters.
I myself am more a business person and my cofounder is a perfect match as he is way more knowledgeable in tech and development.
Got to admit I have previous negative experiences cooperating with other people, so as all the other guys said - it all depends on characters and work experience, skills, etc.

Everything improves, when having a Co-Founder.
You are more motivated, you have someone to bounce ideas off of and, most importantly, someone with COMPLEMENTARY skills.
I often see friends from university (CS) students teaming up, in order to create a startup.
This rarely goes well, as people who know (and love) to code often do so too early.

On the other hand, there is a definite risk, of trying to find a Co-Founder FOR a product, which is already in progress. I found that out while looking for a Co-Founder for Onepixa, an AI based design software (we are looking for a 3. marketing Co-Founder btw). In order to know if you can trust a person, you need to spend time together with them. There is no way around it. Combine that with the fact you have to build your product quickly, and you are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Overall it obviously depends on the product, and the skills of the founder. Building a product without a technical Co-Founder is obviously very hard. Ideally you should focus on building your network BEFORE you start thinking about a new project, this way you have a collection of great people, who you trust, ready to go!

Good post. I feel organic growth is the best. Get a list of 30 users and check if you are able to convert them into customers. This validates your idea. If the feedback is good try fb, twitter ,ad platforms. If things go well then hire a marketing guy. Try to comvert that guy into a co founder.

I'd say being a solo founder and signing up for founderscafe.io would work for the support aspect of a founder.

I don't think you need it.
You can learn marketing or anything soon.
Basic marketing is much easier than developing.

But if you are not an engineer, you cannot learn dev soon because it is too hard. It takes too much time.

I'm in the same position as you.

The second product, early stages, few paying customers, developer.

Some time ago I've started to face the marketing problem and asked about it here, and moving fast-forward I can tell that (at least technically) - you can do it even solo.

It's harder because for me personally, writing blog posts instead of lines of code feel like soul-killing work, but I have to push myself to do it because overwise the product will sink.

Most people say that it's a long-term play, and it usually requires at least 6 months of consistent work until you will start to see some results.

In conclusion: If you will try to do marketing for a period of time and feel comfortable with the process and the results - you can probably go solo.

You can keep going solo, and then get others on-board later if needed (or wanted). It is much harder to do it the other way around (going from multiple involved to solo).

I'll agree with the other commenters in that you can certainly make it solo, but you should also take into consideration your plans for growth, your own well-being, and what you ultimately want to accomplish. Marketing and business sense and all that is important, but certainly something you can just learn and implement yourself. Can that take longer and result in some growing pains? Yes. But you'll be more well-rounded for it and prepared to take on more solo projects in the future.

On the other hand, who says you need a "co-founder" in so many words? It's OK to work with someone else for their specific expertise, or find a mentor for guidance and advice, and not partner up as explicit co-founders.

It depends. In any case, I can post you in my newsletter(for free) where you can find a growth partner. Check the latest issue: https://newsletter.microns.io/issues/new-micro-startups-for-sale-happy-new-year-2022-951465

It depends on the scope of the project you are working on. If you are working on a small idea that you can manage everything by yourself then you probably don't need one. If on the other hand, you are spending all your time developing and have no time to do the other stuff, a cofounder clearly would be hugely beneficial.

I think it also helps to have someone to talk about the project in depth with.

How do people go about finding cofounders outside of their extended circle of friends?

I started several businesses over the last two decades. Most of them were with one or more co-founders.

It took me a while to realise that I don’t need someone else to build a successful business. The joy I have as a solo-founder is so much more then I had in the past.

It still doesn’t mean you have to do everything alone. There are a lot a very capable freelancers you can hire to help you with things you are not good at or don’t enjoy.

However if you plan to go and build a unicorn 🦄 you might be better off with a co-founder.

If you already have paying customers, all you need to do is scale up your existing workflow. You should stay away from onboarding a cofounder who's not going to pull his weight, especially not an idea guy.

I've been going through a difficult period with my cofounder (more on that here: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/how-do-you-motivate-co-founders-to-commit-with-you-on-an-idea-995eec7871)

I think one thing I'm learning is most cofounderships end in divorce so maybe don't see the co-founder route as the perfect alternative.