[petewarden]

I went through Techstars in 2010 as their first solo founder, and I failed pretty hard. The combination of talks, mentor sessions, wooing potential team members, and pitch practice left me almost no time to code and plan the product. For the final pitch, all I had was demo ware, and I felt an idiot getting up on stage.

It was a worthwhile failure for me, I made some great friends and learned a lot, but I'd counsel any lone founder to focus on growing some kind of support team around them as the first priority. I would never contemplate an accelerator as a solo founder, but I have nothing but admiration for those who have managed it.

[npt4279]

That might be more of an issue with Techstars than being a solo founder (I've been through Techstars as a solo founder. I'm also a YC alum).

Techstars has lots of talks, sessions, and pitch practice. YC has almost none of that - one dinner a week, otherwise, a complete focus on product and customers.

[corry]

Agreed. I started out solo in an incubator and had to be RUTHLESS with my time. Basically didn't really make use of the mentors / sessions / etc - too busy writing code / making sales calls. Didn't spend time networking with the other startups - too busy trying to network in my industry. Didn't spend time on pitch competitions etc - too busy trying to find real investors who knew me and knew the space.

I've since added a co-founder, but we more or less still operate the same (probably a bit to our detriment).

[cpursley]

Why didn't you contract coding out (possibly you did)?