[lettergram]

You know, I'd venture to say the vast majority of businesses are started by one core person. One person has the idea and convinces others to follow. That's the most important metric to look for, can they create a team, can they convince others, etc.

Personally, I've started projects alone and with others, but by far all my most successful businesses/projects (one of which I'm applying to YC with) have been initialized by myself, and then I brought in others as needed.

Unfortunately, that creates some issues. For example, my most recent partner had to step back for personal reasons. Now, the question is - does that look bad? Now, I'm in an even weaker position because it looks like I failed to convince them the project was worth it, or we had a falling out. Neither of which was the case, we're still good friends, we just had different priorities and risk / reward levels.

Now I'm again a solo founder, searching for another partner. I know I could use one, which is why I'm doing it. There's a lot of work, and I'd move faster with help. I feel that's the only time I'd search for a co-founder going forward.

I kind of doubt people can bring people in just to increase fundability. They still have to be convinced and provide value.

[sliverstorm]

I'd venture to say the vast majority of businesses are started by one core person

On the other hand, we as humans have a well known desire for one person to pin everything on. A 'hero fallacy' if you will (I'm sure there's a better term). Thousands of invested engineers didn't make the iPhone, Steve Jobs made the iPhone. Millions of troops and five countries didn't win WWII, General Patton did. A series of brilliant collaborating scientists building on the shoulders of giants didn't invent nuclear fission, Albert Einstein did. Turing cracked Enigma, nevermind the Polish cryptographers whose work he built on. Can you even name half of The Traitorous Eight?

The list of examples where we pick one name to worship from a large enterprise of many deeply involved individuals is very, very long.

So, maybe it's good to discount a perspective that identifies one single person as the complete nexus of success for any particular enterprise.

[tixocloud]

Second this. For personal reasons, I am also now again a solo founder. Sometimes having a team is great but the timing may not be right.

I do agree that what's more important is the ability of one core person to convince others that it's worth their time and energy to execute on the idea. The execution part is the biggest challenge - everyone wants to do a startup but whether they can survive the marathon while dealing with everything else that goes on is another story.