

Confessions of a solo founder - conesus
http://www.cleverkoala.com/2010/10/confessions-of-a-solo-founder/

======
patio11
First they tell you it can't be done, then they laugh at you, then it is a
nice little hobby project, then you might be able to go full-time but so what
you couldn't pay rent in San Francisco, then $100k isn't really that much
anyway, then you're the exception that proves the rule.

~~~
krishna2
Gandhi: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you,
then you win.

------
p01nd3xt3r
2 months is not that long dude. I am a single founder and have been going hard
for over 3 years. The key to it IMHO is to really love what you are doing so
much that it does not seem like work. I dont launch either. Just iterate. See
article: [http://www.marketing.fm/2009/11/17/never-launch-just-
iterate...](http://www.marketing.fm/2009/11/17/never-launch-just-iterate/)

~~~
resdirector
Out of interest, full-time or part-time? And what's your startup (couldn't
find it in your about page)?

~~~
p01nd3xt3r
All were fulltime

NetWinner - started as 1 grew to 15 (2 yrs)

Social Ad Manager (appox 1yr) currently Ramen Profitable.

Local Strange (Launching in Nov.)

~~~
resdirector
Awesome dude. I've been going full-time for 2 years on my startups as a single
founder: 2 failed, the 3rd one I've now got a co-founder.

Good to hear that there's others out there who never give in.

------
mLewisLogic
Thanks to everyone giving me the "Just 2 months? That's nothing" comments.

I don't mean that facetiously. It's actually pretty inspiring that you guys
made it through that honeymoon phase and into something real. Hopefully this
venture will be around a year from now, and I'll be able to dish out the same
kind of inspiration.

------
niels
Nice post, but 2 months?? Try 2 years! Try 60 hour coding sessions! Try
getting your first paying customer! Then we can talk!

~~~
abbott
I agree. 2 months is a vacation. I've been solo for 27 months (i do have a
team though).

My confession? Get a _great_ co-founder/partner, and do more _hard_ time.

~~~
lelele
What do you mean by "hard time"? Thanks.

------
ludicast
Solo founder here as well. I think the biggest problem is scope creep when
there are no other opinions. My solution to this is making sure most features
are responses to clients paying for said feature.

But the best part is that you do not need to compromise on your technical
decisions. And if you do make a mistake, you can back out of it with a limited
amount of fanfare/humiliation.

Also, since we're tech guys we really need a Steve Ballmer (or Alexis Ohanian)
to handle the non-technical stuff so we can code in a bubble. They don't need
to be founders, or equity partners, but should have a large role.

Oh yeah, and 2 months really is nothing :).

~~~
kn0thing
While I appreciate the shoutout (thanks), did you have to put my name next to
Ballmer? ;) le sigh.

------
swies
Going solo is terribly hard. The worst part is that you don't know how much
you're missing by not having a co-founder until you've seen what great
collaboration is like (spoiler: it is really good).

Of all the great things to get out of doing Y Combinator three years ago, the
best by a mile was teaming up with Sascha to work on BaseShield. We ended up
shelving that product but it's incredible to look at BaseShield and now Ninite
and realize how completely they were shaped and improved by our collaboration.

I'm not talking about the set-theory union of our ideas, it's more like a tug-
of-war as we'd shape the concepts and features underlying our work. Ideas
always improved through this process, often radically. This was especially
true for core questions like what does it do, how does it work, and what will
users see.

Briefly, if it seems OK to work alone I'd say it's because you don't know what
you're missing.

~~~
mLewisLogic
The search for a co-founder has been on as a serious milestone for the last
month. Solo is something I chose when I started because I didn't have a co,
and didn't want to let that be a blocking issue. I'm fully aware what a great
co could do for my biz.

If anybody knows of a rockstar Python dev in NYC, let me know.

~~~
alain94040
I apologize in advance if it's spam, but I'm putting together two co-founders
meetup in the coming weeks:

Silicon Valley on Nov 2nd: [http://www.meetup.com/Co-Founders-Wanted-
Meetup/calendar/148...](http://www.meetup.com/Co-Founders-Wanted-
Meetup/calendar/14858537/)

Austin on Dec 6th: <http://www.meetup.com/Co-Founders-
Austin/calendar/15251144/>

If your city is not listed, you know what to do :-)

------
iuguy
5 years as a solo founder here. Would I do it again? Maybe, but definitely
differently. What I do know is that coming out of the other side that there's
very little in a small business I can't do.

I'm certainly prepared for my next project, whatever it may be. Keep it up,
and best of luck.

------
jcfrei
my advice: dont be a solo founder. chances are that you get totally sucked
into your idea without realizing that you're project is going to fail. if
you're doing all the work yourself, make sure you release early and dont fail
too hard (the longer you wait with the launch the harder the 'waking up' will
be). if you got a cofounder chances are a lot higher that you might be
building something substantial.

but kudos to you for sticking to your project, it takes a lot of dedication
and that's ultimately what makes an entrepreneur.

~~~
chailatte
How strange that people seems to accept an author writing a book for 10 years,
or a screenwriter writing a movie for 5 years, yet when a web developer tries
to make a simple web app people go "NO! you have to be in a team! It's TOO
HARD!"

~~~
anthuswilliams
I was once trying hard to be a screenwriter, and we in the writing community
never accepted any such thing. If someone is putting 10 years into their
novel, or 5 years into their screenplay, that is cause for suspicion. The bars
of Hollywood are awash with people who tinker with the same pet idea for years
and never submit to the public. Writers form writers' groups and seek managers
for the same reason founders seek cofounders: to keep themselves from
strolling down an interesting but ultimately profitless rabbit hole. Writers
have their own version of "artists ship". Writers publish.

~~~
kscaldef
Getting external feedback is not the same thing as having a co-founder. I
would hope that any solo founder is still talking with people about his or her
project.

------
vaksel
I agree 2 months is nothing...you haven't even launched yet. The hardest part
is still ahead of you...struggling to get users, 1 person at a time

------
jon914
I've been on mine for almost 3 years, pulling in 40 hours a week on top of a
full time job. I haven't launched (I will in a few months), but I've built up
a base of 1000 users, all through sweat and blood. It's hard, it has it's up
and downs, but it's a thrilling ride no matter how it plays out.

------
PhrosTT
hey mike,

i'm also a solo founder in hoboken (sorry i creeped your resume). nice post.
hit me up if you ever want to do a knowledge share or something.

~~~
mLewisLogic
That sounds good man. Drop me an email.

------
mLewisLogic
Wow, got mini-digged for a few minutes there. Damn shared hosting...

------
chailatte
2 months is nothing. Try a year or two.

~~~
benologist
Yup I agree. I'm 1.5 years in to mine and I've had some amazing times, and
also stayed up late fixing stuff I broke many more times than I wanted to or
trying to meet some over-ambitious goal I had. The first time I added an extra
server I screwed up quite badly so nobody could sign in (and stats weren't
updating even if they could). And my biggest user emailed me to ask why it was
so bad.

2 months is like a shiney new relationship - you're totally absorbed in each
other and you're that couple that "never fights".... but you're going to.

