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Friday, September 2, 2011

Sole founders

Heard a story yesterday about a tech startup with a problem:

Only one founder.

This is #1 on Paul Graham's list of 18 things that kill startups, and as someone who is currently trying to get two startups off the ground, I can see why. If there's only one person, ideation sessions will be weaker, the founding team by definition will be weak in a few key areas because

  • There are no complementary skill sets
  • Things will take longer to get done
  • Quality will suffer because no one else is vetting the work
  • There is no moral support when bad days arise
  • Investors will be skeptical

I've heard that the founder is pretty much consumed with raising money. His capital needs are actually much higher, because he's also a non-technical founder running a software startup. He can't code. As a result, everything has to be outsourced, which is just killing his funds.

Of course, it's not too late to bring on another founder, but he's got to move fast.

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