Do I need a co-founder? 🤔
I'm a single technical founder of ExploreHere, an iOS app that lets you explore history around you. I've been developing the app for the last 6 months and launched the iOS version about 3 months ago.
Current Numbers
I'm currently making ~$100/week in sales to the pro version, ~800 users/month and about a 10% conversion from free to pro. I have no investors, and at this point, have only invested my time into the app.
Goal - Increase sales from $100/week to $1,000 / week.
In order to do this, I have a bunch of things I'd like to do, from content marketing, adding more share-ability features to the app, and of course - build the Android version...
As a technical person, I inherently focus on the things I could do from a technical point to increase sales. For example: If I build the Android version I would hope to get close to 2x the sales?
On the other hand, theres content marketing, talking with communities, promoting the app to historical societies and getting more involved.
It feels like I can't do both at the same time. Developing the Android version would take ~2 months of development work, and theres a lot to do after that point as well...
Question!
Should I take it slow, do one thing at a time, one step in-front of the other and carry on as a single founder? Since I have no investors, and haven't invested anything financially, time isn't a direct issue and I could just focus on the Android version for the next couple months, then focus on marketing after that?
OR
Should I find a co-founder to either lighten my technical load, or someone to handle the marketing side? This would allow me to double up on tasks, bounce ideas off of, and overall move faster. At the cost of equity?
Thanks for your thoughts!
Have you considered contracting the services you can't provide yourself? Or, bartering services in exchange for the marketing help you need? Neither of those options require you to give up equity.
Thanks for the follow-up; I've thought about it, but I guess thats just trading additional time/money in exchange for equity. I'm wanting to hire someone to help with time, so trading services wouldn't fix the problem & I was hoping to not invest lots of money right now.
So I guess the simplified question would be; should I give up equity to double (ish) the development speed of the company? Is it an 'okay' idea to just keep it at the same speed?
The only person who can decide if it's "ok" is you. There are risks with any business. Someone may beat you to the larger market, but that sounds unlikely based on the model you described. Apple or Google may make a change that forces you to start from zero, again unlikely. Other unforeseen things could happen as well, but the chances are you'll probably be ok to wait.
Should you, that depends on your business goals. Try this. If you're dead set on a path to $1k per week, then associate a timeframe with that goal. Then, work backward from that date and build a completion date schedule of all the things that need to happen in order to hit that goal. When that's done, look at the list of tasks you've created and decide how many you can reasonably handle yourself. Now you have your list of tasks that someone else needs to handle. From there, you can decide if the revenue coming in from the app will finance the outsourcing of those tasks. If it won't, and you do not want to invest your own money, then you need to determine the alternative options for each task. At this point, you're still not forced to take a partner.
Questions to ask yourself when reviewing that list are:
-Can all these tasks reasonably be handled by the same person? If not, then equity may not solve your problem because you may need to involve too many people for it to make sense.
-What is the timeframe necessary for you to learn how to complete each of those tasks? If it's short enough you may decide you can take this all on yourself, and in the end, you'll be in a better place to handle the next app.
-What else outside of money do you have to offer in exchange for these tasks? I understand you are trying to solve the issue of time, but if you can do a week's worth of work for someone and get what you need, then you delayed your schedule by a week. If it's 5 months then that's probably a different story.
I think you're asking the wrong question, Wesley!
I'd ask you: what type of product/company do you want to build?
Right now, sounds like you've got a nice little side-hustle/micro-saas project in the works. Nothing wrong with that! As these other kind folks pointed out, it's not a bad idea to continue on this path as you are.
Having said that, if you aspire to build a large company, bring on investors and grow beyond your means; I'd highly recommend a co-founder. It's really hard to build any company alone, let alone a high growth startup.
Also, it's absolutely possible to find a co-founder once your idea / product has already been established—don't let that discourage you. And I got news for you: if you keep building this thing and growing, chances are it won't even look or sound like what you're building now in a few years 😂
On the tactical side, if you choose to bring on a co-founder, 50% might be a fair long term outcome but do not give them 50% right away. I highly recommend doing a standard cliff and vesting schedule—maybe even having them invest a few dollars to show their commitment.
Eg. 1 year cliff, 4 year vesting (at 25% vested per year)
Lastly, I think you're already on the ball with this, but I would definitely be wise to bring on a co-founder that is complimentary to you. You're the technical guy, so someone who is either product and design focused or marketing and growth focused would be good. More important than that, though, is fit. Make sure you can stand this person for hours on end!!
Ps. All of this comes out of my real personal experience, but take always take it with a grain of salt. You're steering the ship!
Thank you for your awesome feedback - I totally agree, that's the real question; "What type of company do I want to build". Although I'm working on ExploreHere for about 30-40 hours a week - I think I'm pretty contempt at keeping it niche side-hustle and growing it this way.
I'm not in a particular rush - other than the technical debt that grows over time (as things become deprecated / Apple & Google change API's and such.
I can always get a co-funder in the future, so theres not much risk / downside to keeping it at the pace it currently is 😊
Thanks again for your awesome advice!
My pleasure :)
Your equity has no value at this point because the company is not growing like crazy nor is there any indication it will be around 6 months from now! People get excited about owning a piece of a rocket ship so until you get to that stage, equity is not something you should use as a bargaining chip (nor should you be giving it out too easily to avoid dilution).
You have managed to do something AMAZING: make $100/week from an app! Take it slow and keep growing that revenue and then use it to PAY someone to help with the other stuff (even on a part-time basis).
Assuming you are all in on ExploreHere, consider co-founder as a risk mitigator and even as an insurance policy.
I'm not telling co-founder is a magic bullet which will hit your targets automatically, but a right co-founder who can compensate for your skill-set and share the vision/passion for the startup can be an effective force multiplier.
Of course investors wouldn't bet on single founders and rightfully so; I rejected this idea in my previous startup and after 5 years of successful run as a single founder, I had to close my start due my health issues.
I've written more about this topic here - https://hitstartup.com/being-single-founder-vs-having-co-founders-in-a-startup/.
Its always hard to find a CoFounder for an idea that has already been developed. Unless you find someone who already has a decent interest in the market you are in or already sells into the same market some other product or service.
That being said doing sequentially means you will continue to own the idea and equity and hopefully grow the weekly revenue to something where you can hire some additional folks.
Third thing is that the sector you are in History plus travel. Traction in those arenas might slow for a few more months so maybe its the best time to junker down and build.
As someone stated only you know the correct answer to the question.
If I had to give a suggestion I would bring some one on for equity now to work on the marketing with the ability to buy them out at some point in case you have cash.