[trevelyan]

My startup is still on page five of Google and our traffic is almost all word-of-mouth. So it is possible but it is not fun. Very easy to get bitter when you see the spam that floats above your stuff and hear people tell you that Google rewards quality content, or when users write you to complain that they cannot find you.

Anyway, I would not try it with multiple founders. It is hard enough to get yourself to the point of making enough money to pay rent/food for one person without strong distribution without having to worry about multiple partners.