[edw519]

Top 10 Reasons for Being a Single Founder

10. You spend 0 time debating technical issues that have already been decided.

9. You spend 0 time refereeing personal differences among the other co-founders.

8. You spend 0 time wondering why they can't keep up with you, or why they're doing something other than what you have already agreed upon.

7. You learn every part of your business. You never worry what's happening outside of "your turf".

6. You can always find a sympathetic ear to discuss a technical, marketing, or business issue. For free.

5. You can always find someone else to socialize with, with no impact on your business. For free.

4. You are not going to get hit by a bus.

3. If your significant other wants more of your time, give them a picture of the new house, car, jewelry, or NBA franchise they will own if they exercise some patience. They're the only other one that really matters.

2. You get real good setting up your schedule to work best for you, with "head down" time, and other time.

And the best reason for being a single founder...

1. You keep all of your equity. All of it.

[willarson]

10. Debating isn't time wasted unless the participants are closed minded. When working with others I respect, I have always found that both sides are willing to defect to the other side, they just want to make sure their side is considered first.

9. This is equally avoidable by finding mature people to work with.

8. I often fall into the trap of thinking others are not keeping up with me, but it usually is just me being arrogant. If you can't take advantage of someone, its usually a management issue. Some people are not worth managing though (too little benefit for time invested), again emphasizing the importance of choosing a good co-founder... obviously not always easy to do.

7. The "go at it alone" approach doesn't scale. We can look at examples like the founder of PlentyOfFish who appears to have done it alone, but what he did was to essentially ignore certain areas he didn't feel like dealing with, and things worked out well, but they could have very easily gone the other direction.

6. You can indeed take advantage of other people and use them without any payment, but you are still taking advantage of them (you're getting something, they are not). Because they won't be fully invested in your company, your practices, or your product (and they won't be, because they are just being used), the quality of their advice will suffer because they will be talking about generic situations instead of your specific one.

5. So can founders with partners. For free.

4. But woah, watch out for those taxis.

3. Look honey, I know I have been busy recently, and I'm still too busy to spend time with you, but you're going to be have a lot of money soon. No, no, no, I don't think you're a prostitute. Wait, no, wait, no, NOT THE CAT...

2. This is really important, and one of the reasons people like working for startups in general, but not really single founder specific.

1. And it may eventually be worth something :)

0. Good list, you put up some interesting things to think about.

[edw519]

Thanks for the feedback. This list was made partially in jest, but 100% from experience.

In my first startup with 3 co-founders, I wasted (yes, wasted!) 50% of my time on numbers 9 and 10. It got so bad, I was afraid of what our customers would witness. And these were seasoned business people in their 20's, 30's and 40's.

8. Good point.

7. I disagree. I am still stunned at what I can accomplish with today's tools vs. 10 years ago. With time and money. And the more I code, the better I get. Every new project I write takes half the code of the previous one.

6. Really disagree. My experience is that the provider of the advice THANKS ME for the opportunity to advise. There are people out there dying for the opportunity to mentor for free; they just don't find many chances. Their payback is watching you succeed with their advice. They can't buy that.

4. I hate this one. I really do. People come to me looking to invest and then tell me my biggest problem is that I may get hit by a bus. Funny thing, I have never had a customer bring this one up. The next time I hear the bus remark, I'll just jump out a 6 story window. That'll show them.

3. Leave my cat out of it.

1. First start-up alone. We'll see. We'll see.

[webwright]

"1. You keep all of your equity. All of it."

This is my favorite. All of your equity! You, as a REALLY smart entrepreneur, have a minuscule chance of success. 99% of the time, all of your equity is going to add up to nothing. If you could increase your paltry 1% chance by bringing on a co-founder (which virtually every experienced person says that you should), why the hell wouldn't you?

Jealously guarding your equity when it's worth nothing seems silly to me.

[edw519]

"99% of the time, all of your equity is going to add up to nothing"

I think that's true no matter how many co-founders you have.

"Jealously guarding your equity when it's worth nothing seems silly to me."

Sorry you see it that way. I'd gladly accelerate my business with the right partners. In the meantime, I'll just keep on coding and selling until I find the right co-founder(s). Nothing jealous about it.

[fireandfury]

Nice. I like your list. I forgot about reasons 9 and 10. I've known some pretty opinionated people who I would imagine would be very hard to do collaborative work with.