Should you go solo, or find a co-founder?

I'm currently flying solo on my project. For me, the biggest advantage right now is sheer speed and autonomy—there's zero friction in decision-making, which is crucial in the early validation stages. I can pivot on a dime. The downside, as many know, is that you wear every single hat and bear all the emotional weight alone. It forces you to learn fast, but you definitely have to be intentional about seeking out external feedback and community to avoid tunnel vision!

My brain loves narrowing chaos into sharp niches.

I’m currently solo, but building in a space where architecture correctness matters more than speed.

I could push an MVP alone — but I’m leaning toward finding a technical cofounder early to build it right from day one.

For those who partnered early — what made you confident it was the right call?

Hi, I'm new here and wonder if this is the right place to put my MVT.

I'm looking definitely for co-founders, here is why :

The Second Renaissance: Building the Antidote

1. The Diagnosis: The Age of Fragmentation

We have built a world that expertly optimizes for distraction, extraction, and hyper-specialization. This system is not merely inefficient; it is anti-wisdom. It rewards the fractured mind and diminishes the holistic thinker. The result is a profound crisis: we are losing our capacity for depth, for meaning, for seeing the whole. We are educated to be excellent cogs, but left illiterate in the language of our own humanity. This is not progress; it is a spiritual and intellectual famine in a time of technological feast.

2. The Antidote: Cultivating the Holistic Mind

The solution is not another app for productivity or a new social network for vanity. The solution is to engineer ecosystems for integrated wisdom. We must revive the polymath ideal for the digital age—not as a relic, but as a necessity. We believe in cultivating thinkers who can connect science to poetry, ethics to engineering, and ancient insight to modern problems. This is not a luxury. It is the only way to navigate the complexity we have created.

3. The Mechanism: The Agora – A Digital Ecosystem for Applied Wisdom

We are building The Agora: a digital public square designed not for attention, but for cultivation.

• The Cognitive Plot: Your learning journey becomes a visible, growing garden—a portfolio of integrated understanding, not a list of consumed content.

• Wisdom Bounties: Real-world problems (from companies, cities, NGOs) are solved by collaborative guilds. Wisdom is measured by its tangible Dividend.

- The Polymath Portfolio: Proof of capability—your synthesis, your solutions, your character— replaces the obsolete credential. This is not a course; it is a life practice.

4. The Invitation: Seeking the First Circle

I am the cartographer of this vision. I need three foundational partners to build the first city upon the map:

• A Mission-Driven Technologist (CTO): Who hears "cognitive garden" and sees elegant data structures, and for whom code is applied philosophy.

• A Community Architect (COO): Who hears "wisdom guilds" and designs inclusive protocols and core practices that transform users into citizens.

- A Chief Storyteller (Narrative Strategist): Who can weave our cause into the cultural narrative, turning the "Second Renaissance" from a concept into a shared aspiration.

We are not optimizing the old game. We are building the board for a new one.

If you feel this famine of wisdom, and have the skill to build the feast, step forward.

Great team > solo > bad team

My primary goals with indie hacking were freedom, flexibility, and enjoyment. And to me a partnership --- at least in the early stages --- would have worked against my goals (because things would be slower, I'd have less autonomy, and so on).

I'm lucky in that I'm a developer who is "good enough" at design/product/marketing, so I don't need to partner up with anyone to build a business. So I didn't.

As my businesses have matured I've started bringing in collaborators to help take on the support / product burden. At this stage a partnership is more in service of my goals because they allow me to take time off without worrying about keeping my customers happy.

If I had different goals---for example, wanting to build a large bootstrapped business---I'd definitely try to partner up with someone with complimentary skills to mine.

Solo here. To be honest it pretty much came down to me not being able to trust that anyone was as excited as I was about the idea. Figured it would be better to go alone than have to try and motivate someone to help when things get hard.

Obviously it would be nice having someone to bounce ideas off of and talk things through with, but I've definitely learned a lot trying to navigate solo. Plus, lifestyle-wise I tend to work at odd times, some days more than others, somedays not at all, some days all night. I know from some previous experiences that people don't always gel well with that type of style.

All in all I think going solo was right for me, but I think it largely depends on whether or not you think you'd be better off working with someone - one of those thongs that you can't take too long figuring out because there's probably no right answer

I'm a big believer in sharing the startup journey with a co-founder.

Your startup is like your baby and growing it all by yourself (whilst extremely rewarding) is tough. It's like being a single parent, with no sleep and starting to doubt whether the path you're on is the right one.

Having co-founders who share similar values, complementary skillsets and the ability to pick each other up when things get tough can sometimes be the difference between a unicorn and a pivot.

In my experience, a good co-founder can help you ride out the losses and be there to celebrate the wins.

I came here to learn from others and hopefully find the right technical co-founder.

I’m Delia, a PhD researcher building Ideal Profile, a SaaS tool that helps businesses understand their customers using personality psychology.

I’ve validated the concept through academic research and early traction but I’m not a developer, which brings me here.

I’ve been working solo so far, but I believe this product needs someone who is technical, but also invested, collaborative, and excited to shape it from the ground up.

Curious to hear how others navigated this stage!

I've worked on countless solo projects, all of which slowly crashed and burned (or just burned, as most of them didn't even take off)!

I'm a builder - I love coding, but I hate selling. It took me way too many attempts to finally realize that I was missing a sales & marketing component.

Last year I started another project, but this time with a co-founder who complimented my skills perfectly (sales, marketing, growth).

This month we hit $30k MRR 🚀

So yes, I would certainly advocate for the "find a co-founder" approach. 50% of something is more than 100% of nothing.

I'm indie hacking with a co-founder, but I was solo up until 2 months ago. The way I found my co-founder was by cold-emailing Youtube content creators to feature my app. Turns out, one of the content creators wanted to help build the app which was fantastic!

Personally, I believe it's much more worth your time to just mainly focus on the project and not actively seek a co-founder. As the product grows, new co-founder opportunities will naturally come and those co-founders will be a better fit as they're the ones reaching out to you.

That being said, if you already start out with a co-founder that's amazing as well.

I've had a cofounder for 2 years working on a recruitment platform but now I am working on Famewall as a solo founder

Each has its separate pros and cons.

Even though I'm a developer at heart, I had an interest towards marketing. We were working on a consumer startup so my cofounder worked on all the technical aspects while I was focused on marketing our product back then

We had more than 3 pivots and though we did have users & planned to raise rounds, the projects didn't see much traction. I felt building a SaaS was more sustainable as we could charge for our product from day 1 which would also help us quit our job.

But my cofounder said that SaaS products are too competitive and he lost energy trying a lot of startups in a year. He mentioned that he wanted to focus more on his career & climb the corporate ladder instead. So we split ways.

I always had the drive to make money independently on the internet so I took the solo founder route with Famewall

With a cofounder you get more free time as they take a fair share of your work. You have someone to share your worries with who'd give a helping hand

But as a solo founder, you get more autonomy to work on things you like. Also you get faster with execution as there's much less discussions going around.

I prefer being a solo founder more now :)

I'm starting solo right now as it seems that I have not sharp senses to find co-founders. In the past I had bad experiences with people that is not fully committed to work at the same pace.

Also in this industry is pretty hard to find people with spare time to be dedicated to a side project that consumes more than 8 hours a week.

In my opinion, it has a lot to do with personality. I have been scoring, consistently, 100% introversion percentile on an AI-supported personality test (not self-reported). It is a big deal for me to get onto any social media platform, start "building in public" and all that.

Posting selfies and shooting youtube videos is unthinkable. Business partnership with anyone is unimaginable. Hacking solo is my middle name. I enjoy working alone.

I know that having a business partner and building in public has tons of advantages, but it seems to be completely against my nature. I would be happy to be proven wrong. I've scored 99% on openness to new experiences on the same AI-supported personality test :-) LOL.

So, in conclusion, the factor of personality seems to play a big role for some people. The fact it does for me probably indicates that there are others like me out there :-)

I'm currently solo but open to having a co-founder. It's kind of like dating, finding the right partner takes a lot of time before you can land on a person. For a co-founder, the person has to...

A) Share my vision
B) Bring a skill set I don't have
C) In it for the long haul

A co-founder who you trust would make the workload easier and having someone you can share in the struggles/successes with is way more enjoyable than going at it alone imo.

I'm choosing Solo to be honest. My goal is starting a new business and developing a product right. So why I'm just trying to find a co-founder by spending a lot of time to explain everything to do it together.

It's really hard to find someone in your mindset. Everyone has different interest. So I'd prefer to start at least Solo and someone else will probably join your journey.

I'm going solo . Daniel Vassallo has convinced me it's a bad idea to commit to a partner, because early on as indie hacker you may be forced to pivot frequently. Just because you and your partner are excited about a first or second idea, if you have to frequently pivot, you may not be excited about future directions. Your skills might be the perfect complements on one project and not on another. If your project isn't working out, and you want to diversify with a side project (e.g. creating a small e-book), it might be unclear how your partnership fits into that.

With all that said, I sort of do have a partner - my wife! She's not directly contributing to any of my projects but providing health insurance, her income to our family, psychological support, as well as some feedback. So she's providing some of the things you might benefit from in a co-founder.

When I do see partnerships that do great, they tend to look a lot like a successful marriage. Typically they've been friends for years and have experience going through the thick and thin together, and could get on the same page with challenges like needing to pivot I mentioned earlier.

I think there's a lot of analogies between a marriage and a co-founder relationship. It's really hard to find the right person, how you get through bad times is more important than how you get through good times, and you should never settle for the wrong person!

I have done both, solo and with a partner. Going solo is very hard, going with a partner is less hard.

What's more important however is finding the right partner. It took several years to get it right.

I'm solo founder of Qpchat, all things are done by myself.
As long as you persist, you will achieve results.

I've been solo ever since the start of MentorCruise. While it would sometimes be nice to have a helping hand on board, I'm also routinely talking to other founders that have or are close to shutting their businesses down due to disagreements with their co-founders.

It's just one point of failure I don't want to add to this business at this point.

@csallen

It totally depends on your product if you have a small product, then I will highly recommend you go alone on the path, but if the project is long then you can get 2 cups 1 for yours and 1 for your partner on your project road! 😊😊

means then go with the co-founder.

I strongly recommend not doing a cofounder! The only ship that can't sail is a partnership. It's like a marriage, you better love your cofounder. I have done three startups, ending in disaster and ruining the friendship. We had no domain knowledge in the business, and I was the developer doing all the work.

Long story short, working on your own side project is better. Just tell your friends with the billion-dollar idea no. If they are your real friends, they'll understand.

Bootstrapped two projects with co-founders:

1. Did mid-6-digits in annual revenue at its peak. The co-founder got into smoking too much weed.

2. Did in low 4 digits. The co-founder missed vision but thought he is doing all the right things.

3. Did zero in revenue. Two co-founders. Spent around 80k on development and conferences.

I think I’m not going with co-founders anymore and will hire people instead :)

I wish it is that easy. My background is in tech, I've built numerous projects for different companies and so I thought simply having the technical skills is enough to build my own product. But I was so wrong, I tried to do it alone, study UX, marketing, etc but failed. Learned my lesson and tried to find a co-founder, it was not easy as well but the success rate is higher. Right now, I'm starting a new product and am waiting for my ideal co-founder.

I have co founder in my first SaaS business Glorify (VC funded and launched publicly in 2019), he's COO, more senior to me, and lots of business experience under his belt, great when it comes to investment strategies etc...

I think I needed someone like him for this business, to give me more confidence as I grew my experience. But in 3 years I feel I have out grown him by miles. I still respect him and consult with him on important decisions, but I've absorbed and learned so much wearing many hats as CEO and visionary of Glorify.

My next company is going to be fully boostrapped, I do have a CTO co-founder as from my experience that is super important - Glorify did not have CTO as a co founder, not having that leadership can be challenging.

But I have more of a Solo founder experience in my new company, since in Glorify both of us were leading a lot of high level business decision making, where as now it's just me, and mr CTO handles only the technical side.

There is a saying: If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.

I believe that staring alone makes starting faster. But at one point of time you will need a help to get further.

But it not necesarraly should be co-founder. It could be just a team members - especially if you started alone.

I'm indie hacking with two co-founders at Outseta. The primary reason is the size and scale of what we're building, but beyond that having complimentary skill sets.

1. I'm a marketer
2. My co-founder Dimitris is a back-end dev
3. My co-founder Dave is a front-end dev

Between our three skills sets, we had what we needed to bring our product to market successfully and can move at a pace that we otherwise could not.

Solo since I don't have a partner. Would be open to a cofounder, but they would have to be a good one, like someone I know and trust already. Have already had bad experiences trying to make a startup work with people that I didn't know that well.

There's a book I'm enjoying "Company of One" that is all about how a solo, bootstrapped, slow-growth startup can turn out great.

Cofounders are very helpful. Should you devote lots of time to finding one as opposed to actually doing work? No. Start building, get revenue, and carry on as usual, then the right person will come to you.

Don't ask permission to be successful.

I've mostly worked alone, and I've always enjoyed it. However, for my latest venture, I teamed up with a close friend of mine, and I can't imagine running this biz without him. I think moving forward, I'll stick to solopreneurship for side hustles but have a co-founder for anything bigger.

Having someone else to talk to about product design and marketing tactics helps so much. And things move way faster when you're both plugging away every day.

I'm indie hacking on VCvsME.com solo. Both approaches are fine and have their tradeoffs. You don't get something for nothing: There's a saying, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.

In the beginning phases of a startup, you need to go fast (iterate) your products rapidly, etc. But later on, going far becomes more important, hiring, creating a stable enterprise.

I think a co-founder is a fine thing if everything really fits. Ideally, both founders come from different areas of expertise and can benefit from each other.

The fact that a co-founder also thinks entrepreneurially means that you can achieve completely different things. Employees who think this way are hard to get and impossible to pay for in an early phase.

In any case, I would set out the framework conditions in writing and discuss the case if it no longer works. Discussing something like this after the fact ruins you.

I can understand why the usual startup advice is to get a cofounder. The advice comes from VC-back startup world. It makes sense (for investor) to feel safe investing in a startup with cofounders than investing in a solo founder.

As an indie hacker, I’ll focus on contractors and early hires instead. It’s really hard to convince someone to follow your vision without paying them fairly. Even if they’re onboarded, there is still a big risk of cofounder conflicts.

I went with cofounders in my previous attempt at building a product and found it too complicated.

You have to consider other people's opinions and can't move nearly as fast.

Now I'm bootstrapping limey.io and doing it alone. I have a digital agency, and that's my bread and butter. Limey is a project that the agency can push forward, and I call all the shots.

The only way that working with a cofounder can work is if you're truly a perfect match. Each person stays in their lane (marketing/technical), and you occasionally touch base to catch up on progress.

I'm currently working as a co-founder, and I must say that having a dedicated team is by far the most valuable asset and strength in my business. The journey of entrepreneurship can be a rollercoaster, and having a trusted co-founder or team members to share the load is incredibly beneficial.

I can imagine going this path alone, but I believe that partnering up is a wise choice for several reasons. Firstly, it allows you to tap into a diverse pool of ideas and expertise. When you work with others, you benefit from their unique perspectives, skills, and experiences, which can lead to more well-rounded solutions and innovation.

Moreover, connections and networking are often an essential part of building a successful business. Co-founders can bring their networks and connections to the table, helping your startup gain visibility and access to valuable resources that you might not have on your own.

Another significant advantage of having a co-founder is the motivation factor. When one of you loses motivation or faces a setback, the other can step in to provide support, encouragement, and a fresh perspective. It's a bit like a built-in support system that keeps you going during challenging times.

However, it's crucial to address the legal aspects and have clear, well-documented agreements in place from the start. Define roles, responsibilities, equity distribution, and exit strategies clearly to avoid potential conflicts down the road. Having these agreements in place can help maintain a healthy and transparent working relationship.

I'm building with a co-founder and we've recently committed to working on the product full-time.

Main benefits of working together:

1. We complement each other's skills.
   I know how to code and build products, she's great at design and has a degree in psychology (which is relevant to our product). This helps us move faster and create a better product because it would take me loads of time to learn her skills.

2. We motivate each other when things get tough.
   When I doubt that we're working on the right problem, she coaches me and helps us ensure we're building the right thing. And I do the same when she's in doubt.

3. It improves our teamwork skills.
   This is more relevant to us because we want to build a company eventually. Working with another person teaches me to give and receive feedback, solve conflicts constructively, communicate effectively, and distribute work efficiently. These skills will be crucial when we start expanding our team.

4. We avoid tunnel vision and other pitfalls.
   Having another person question my suggestions, helps me come up with better ideas, fix mistakes before releasing them to users, and take on a wider perspective.

5. Allows me to focus on work I love.
   I love having the freedom to focus on building the product and taking care of sales and growth. Otherwise, I would have to work on tasks that drain me and have less energy to work on the startup over time.

With these benefits, it's really worth considering finding a co-founder!
However, if you just want to build a small project for passive income and have a wide range of skills, going solo sounds like a great choice. You just need to have reliable ways of motivating yourself and getting outside perspectives on your ideas.

I hope this is useful!

Solo undoubtedly at the beginning ; learn all the ropes by attending meetups and events.

During that journey, you might bump into co-founders

If you have an idea, try to execute it ; use upwork, fiverr and dont have to have salaried team

Once you are at certain milestone then depending on your route to scale up Venture captial or bootstrap you can choose your path. We are brainwashed to have a team -- yes, these days virtual team is as good. VC look to minimize their risk and hence they look at team as a whole, on execuiton

Hope this helps

Hope the moderators are watching me ('need to post some useful comments before I can post my own)

Indie hacking solo, and sharing what i'm doing with people. Maybe along the way I'll stumble on a great co-founder

I just started out and I am solo to check out the platform so my co-founder can focus on other platforms. We want to find the right path as fast as possible

I am looking for a partner because I have some idea to work on

I'm currently struggling with this very question - I have a working prototype and I'm almost ready to launch it, but I know that iterations will be necessary moving forward (and most of these technical iterations are ones that I can't complete). Now I'm stuck - but these comments have definitely helped!

I will go solo for now until I find a co-founder.

Either you have a co-founder with the same drive for the idea, or you start solo and build the team around the idea's needs.

Do you guys think this question is even an option for a non-technical founder who is building a technical product? Or is it required to have a technical co-founder in this case? Thanks!!

As of today, I view this as no difference as other hiring decision. No need to glorify it.

1. Since this is the C-Level or Founding Level position, what's your job description?
2. Is this something you really want to "outsource" to someone who is capable to do solo & get things done, basically same as you?
3. Is this person have this effect 1+1 > 2 or more?

If not, never on-board a person because:

1. They are more social than you.
2. They cannot get things done faster than you.
3. Your time is suck into guiding this person.
4. They seem to be more interested in title glory, equity ride, or soical proof.

Keep in mind, you are also going through your transformation.
Yes, our time & money will be suck into "good" & "old" & "familiar" work,
but they might not "right" work for your future journey.

Future journey is definitely not pleasant.
Give some thoughts on who you can get your circles.
Since people at wrong time can ruin your energy.

I am solo with a trusted specialist circle.
I am taking time to know their work attitude & quality & human aspect.

Currently going solo but im open to a cofounder. At the end of the day you can't do it alone, you need a team. I tried to do everything alone and I burned out.

I guess it's all about the mindset of the people and what you can gain in return. If you have a co-founder with the same mindset and work for growth, then you should find a co-founder, but if you don't, then go solo; it will be much more helpful in learning about new aspects of the business.

There isn't a one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as it depends on the individual entrepreneur's situation and what they hope to achieve with their business. However, in general, it is often beneficial to have a co-founder to help with things like idea generation, business strategy, and day-to-day operations.

My main company is a online professional services firm and I'm very happy to own 100% of it. When you're not getting any equity-based funding, the benefits of owning your whole company are huge.

For example, I used my business's revenue to qualify for my mortgage. Small business owners often have trouble qualifying for mortgages because they write off so many expenses. My taxable income as an individual was too low to qualify for a townhouse in Brooklyn, but my business's annual revenue of $1.5m to $1.8 million for each of the two preceding years made me qualify easily. With a cofounder, I don't know if I could have done that.

I also get to use the company credit cards for Amex points and airline miles to such an extent that I have Diamond Medallion status with Delta because of my annual card spend. Again, with a business partner, this wouldn't work.

If you're soliciting venture capital, that's a different story. I think it really depends on what your product is. I have a startup that may or may not raise angel or venture funding, but I believe it a product I can build and promote on my own so I prefer not to get a cofounder.

This means that if I raise one or zero rounds and I ever sell it for $10 million, or possibly as little as $5 million, I will probably be able to do whatever I want for the rest of my life even after long term capital gains taxes. It's still really hard to sell a business for $5-$10 million, but it's something I can achieve even if it turns out my total addressable market isn't huge.

I think co-founder is preferred as working solo can be a little demoralizing when you feel that you're not making progress. Sometimes having someone to push you forward on those harder times, especially a co-founder who will share these feelings can help you both get over those emotions.

I'm solo. I'm looking for a co-founder constantly; however, it's hard to find one!
All of my friends apparently don't want to do startups, I need new entrepreneurial friends :)

Solo for the time being. It’s my first time building an app. Ive sone some cofounder dating but it seems unlikely that the right person will show up and check all the boxes, and also be willing to take the risk to get involved.

If the product takes off, it won’t be feasible to run the business solo, but meanwhile, keeping everything as streamlined as possible.

I love playing around with small ideas by myself but if you're going all in and have someone you feel could be a good partner, I would definitely recommend partnering up.

I guess the obvious is you have more skill and manpower in the early days of your startup, but that's very much secondary to having someone who you can share the load and simply talk with when going through the tough parts of a startup.

I would definitely prioritize the intangible qualities of a potential business partner before considering what hard skills they could bring.

Much has been discussed on this topic already, and there's pros and cons to all options.
I've been working solo for a while, helps early on when things are in the 'hobby' development phase.
If it's convenient to find a partner early on, and you are looking to build something requiring skills you don't have, partnering with the right people will probably help. Working solo lets you see whether an idea has legs, learn skills yourself, and find out if help is truly necessary which may be a better fit depending on an innumerable set of factors.

I think that it depends on the type of business and vertical you are in.
I always think that if you are trying to build something on a smaller scale being solo is better but if you are going for something bigger and more technical you might need a partner.
Personality is another thing that factors into this. Some people just doesn't work well with partners so being a solo person serves those type better.

I've run a SAAS as a solo-founder for 17yrs. If I could go back in time and could find the right person, I'd probably partner up.

I think growing a company as a solo-founder is a lot harder, lonelier and probably less fulfilling.

I'm 3-months into working on a company called bossyanimal - we help people find natural routines (supplements, nutrition, behaviors) to manage PMS symptoms. We're still in the process of validating whether people want this type of product.

I partner with doctors to do all the medical things (design with supplements + protocols go into the kit) and I do all the business/marketing stuff (landing pages + ads + etc), and we split revenue from kit sales.

Most of the naturopathic doctors I work with are also building their own medical practices and don't have the time or appetite to go full-time (or even part-time) on a new idea. So until the product is validated and we meet a certain revenue threshold, I'm the only founder.

But I currently have partnerships with 4 different doctors and this period is serving as a trial run of how we work together. So if/when we hit those revenue thresholds, I'll offer the medical co-founder role to the doctor that has been the best to work with as a partner.

both . . . am creating soul software products solo, while heavily collabroating with other founders . . . this helps us all sharpen one another, give encouragement / feedback, + integrate what we're building into one another's products

Started solo for a while of product R&D (coding), once the app was ready to show off onboarded a partner with business development, finance, and networking skills at a smaller ownership stake with a document path to full partnership evaluated quarterly based on tangible goals. I stay solo for smaller side-hustles and consulting.

So far, so good! Everyone is motivated and has goals to work for.

I'm indie hacking as a content marketer with founders at LinkedCamp.

IF you find a cofounder that compliments your skillset and matches your drive and goals, then BOOM. It's an amazing thing. Especially recommended if you've not done a startup before.

But that being said, having a cofounder is like adding a marriage to your life. You are in it with them through the good and the bad and if you don't have alignment or have trouble working out problems then you are really asking for it.

I'm going solo right now but mainly because I've always had cofounders in the past and I want a break from it.

I'm a solo-founder currently of a biz I run full time. And it's amazing! I can be so flexible and have a lot of freedom. I kind of don't feel like I really work. If I did have a co-founder I would feel like I had a job.

But that being said I might try to find a co-founder for my next thing. partnering up with a marketer/sales person would allow me to go for something bigger and take some of the things off my plate that I'm not as good at.

What's worked for me in the past is to go solo, but with an open mind to finding people to collaborate with. Getting to know people and then potentially partnering up on small projects as a way to test out the relationship.

I'm taking the same approach with my current endeavours.

I like to work with people but most of them are just not at the speed, quality, commitment. If I care about the code quality and my happiness is tied to that code quality, then it's difficult to work with others. Maybe I should just let it go and focus on the business side.

Currently a solo founder of Hawk Eyes IO. Just don't feel the need for another person to help at the moment as I'm an engineer by trade and can do a lot of the building myself. It's something i'm working on during my free time, but i'm definitely not opposed to bringing on a co-founder(s), if it happens it happens. In the meantime, i'll just build.

Definitely try to find a co-founder BUT only when you feel like you found the right person. I've had my share of bad co-founders when I didn't have a clue of what I needed. However I met my co-founder/business partner and we're now on our 3rd business together, having sold the last 2. The key elements to look for:

• Sparring partner: someone who calls you out on your bs and vice versa in a constructive manner
• Complimentary skills: more or less you have skills that fall within different sides of the business (business, product, dev)
• Positive attitude: this goes a long way when sh*t is hitting the fan and you need to ground and execute
• Travel: someone you can hang out with for long periods of time even adventure/travel where you really get to learn about who they are

Hope that helps in some shape or form :)

I'm solo founder and always will be.

having a co founder is a very good idea, but finding a good cofounder is practically question of luck (a tech person opinion)

I'm all-in as a solo founder. I'm building on top of no-code tools which doesn't necessitate a co-founder the same way Saas often does. The autonomy is nice as it accomidates speed but it can be isolating at times.

For me the primary reason to work on my product solo is because of the intellectual challenge. I work on my product to verify my ideas. To test theories in practice.

However, now I have built a solid basis I am looking for a co-founder to sell and support the product. Doing all that on your own is hardly possible, unless you are a multi-talent.

I never worked alone on a product. It's better to work a co-founder for multiple reasons that others have already mentioneD:

• 2 people can deliver more in the same time
• when you're in doubt, there is someone else to support you
• you have a second opinion when making decisions

Went with a cofounder once and it didn’t work out. In the end, I ran out of juice and had to quit hacking for a bit in favor of a stable job.

Now, 5 years later, I am trying it solo with yawplan.com and really miss someone who understands marketing and outreach.

So no idea whats better.

I'm working on Sidekick with 1 cofounder (who just happens to be my partner in life :D).

There wasn't a particular reason other than we like working together! We have different strengths, like to bounce ideas off one another and discuss important issues or strategies.

Some days it seems it would be much easier to have a co-founder; commiserate together, celebrate together, brainstorm together, bring in skills I don't have. THEN I think about how hard it is to articulate my road map and instincts along with the logic I believe I am pursuing.

• I should mention, I used to run a small professional consultancy, and no matter how often I articulated the 5-10 year vision, my one staffer would not get onboard (short term contract workers were the answer). She would push paper around and do a few things, but fought all my decisions, either overtly or covertly. It really sucked. Today, I prefer solo and some smart infrastructure/AI/biz logic code I can run automatically. I realize some folks really don't have an interest in building something, no matter what they say.

I did solo for a while and while it was good in many aspects and i feel unskilled in too many different areas. I was worried with co-founder about different commitment levels and the ownership discussion. I am trying to solve this with a small community with IH members and we get ownership in the project depending on the number of quality of the tasks that we complete. We have co-founder contracts and that has made the journey a lot easier for me.

We are working on multiple projects at once and that means that we can use our specialized skills better :)

From what I've heard, if you are going to look for investments, then definitely a co-founder. There's talk about investors not even looking into companies with a solo founder (there are exceptions of course).

If you are going bootstrapped, I would still find a co-founder. It's just much easier, however, you can go solo if you feel determined enough.

If you have the opportunity, go with a co-founder. It is more fun and has better outlooks for succeeding. A team is all-around stronger, especially if you bring in different skills.

Hey Courtland,

I'm Faruk, the founder of MonitUp.com. I'm also a solo founder and actually a software developer.

MonitUp is an employee monitoring application that measures the productivity of teams and freelancers.

It has an employee-side application and web interface. I am developing the application side and a friend is developing the web side.

Being a solo founder is quite difficult, you have to take care of development, support, sales and all the rest.

MonitUp is currently in the investment process and investors don't like to see a solo founder in front of them. Investors; They want to see an established team, they prefer to invest in a startup with more than one founder.

Because they will invest in your Startup and what if you are bored? What happens if you get divorced? What will happen if you die? They prefer to have others who can keep the business going even if you are not there, in order to reduce such risks.

It is a more accurate relationship that co-founder do not have the same areas of expertise. For example, if one is an expert on the technical side and the other is an expert on the sales side, it would be a great partnership.

Of course, being a co-founder is not an easy process, he will be the person you meet the most in your life for a long time, and I think it is very critical to choose the right person.

Partnership is usually offered instead of giving money during the development phase of the project.

I wish you success with the project.

I am working on an Idea for a digital product and we started it with my friend and former colleague. We've been working on it for quite some time but once things started to be serious it showed up that we have a very different approaches and opinions on how we should proceed.

At the same time, it showed as limiting that we used to collaborate as a Designer and a Project Manager. Therefore I lacked more on-hand collaboration from his side.

And so we split.

I think it's better to have someone with whom you share the Idea so you can discuss it really deeply. But at the same moment, the person has to be really open, aware of his own biases and thoughts, and willing to learn new stuff.

Solo - Findaband.co.nz & HaroSEO.co

Co-founder - NZVenues.co.nz & AucklandWeddings.co.nz

Working on two new projects, both with co-founders.

For the most part, I prefer working with a co-founder.

With that said, it depends on the co-founder.

Ideally, they have a completely separate skillset to yours. That way, you do your thing (without compromise) and they do theirs, and you both win together.

Co-founder if you have someone decent (harder than it looks as you need to align on many factors)

Have clear roles and talk/write about what will happen when someone wants to leave.

For Versoly my co-founder left, luckily we're both very rational and came to an amazing deal for both of us, but there was a little added stress as we didn't talk much about it before.

Solo, always. I just posted about this on IHs if you're interested.

Co-founder... “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” The difficult part is to find the right one for that specific venture at that specific time!

https://blockchainfromfirstprinciple.substack.com