
Ask HN: Should I explicitly search for a co-founder? - ganadiniakshay
I had a cofounder who left because she is getting married and moving to another country and another cofounder who can&#x27;t take the plunge because of personal reasons.<p>I have very high standards for work ethics and don&#x27;t want to get a co-founder just for the sake of it but looks like investors and incubators are highly biased against single founders.
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gt565k
You're focused on the wrong thing. Do you need investors right now? Do you
even need a co-founder?

Focus on building the product and generating revenue. If you can prove your
idea works and it can scale, it doesn't matter how many founders there are, or
whether you spend 10 or 100 hours a week working on it.

No sane investor will turn down an opportunity, given that it generates
revenue and it can scale well.

~~~
ganadiniakshay
So I would really like to have a helping hand/ employees. The thing is we have
around 4 contracts from major companies, but I will only make significant
revenue once they get delivered. I also need to work on my SaaS product for
non-enterprise customers.

So money to hire or a co-founder to share work would be great help. I am
afraid I might burnout working 18 hour days.

~~~
bsvalley
It looks like you're looking for workers to excute your plan. For that reason,
you need money to hire someone in order do execute the job. To get money, you
need people to invest in your company and they only invest in a team of at
least 2 people.

So you're only looking for a cofounder in order to unlock some VC money and
get the job done. I don't think your setup is a receipe for success. I've seen
that configuration so many times and it usually doesn't lead to any good
outcome.

Plus, you're competing with all the other startups or wannabe startups in
order to hire a developer (for free).

You will have to lower your bar and go back to square one. Since I'm assuming
you're not generating any money, all you have is 4 pending contracts, no funds
and no product? Is that accurate? If so, forget about the contracts and look
for a friend(developer) that'll partner with you on this idea. Make it sound
like a solid 50/50 split. You better do it at the very beginning to build a
solid team.

~~~
ganadiniakshay
I am a developer..the products are done halfway or upto 70%. I also built a
product, infact I use it to fulfill the contracts. Even launched an MVP to get
some feedback. Its just getting too hectic as more contracts keep getting
added.

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ig1
Firstly you have a mess you need to clear up, have you bought out your other
co-founders to ensure you own 100% of the company ? - you'll struggle to find
investors if you've got zombie cofounders who may claim to the company, you
need to get the paperwork sorted out now.

Next understand why investors want you to have cofounders.

It's not some arbitrary standard, you simply won't have the cash to be able to
hire a top tier sales, marketing person, etc. so bringing that talent onboard
as cofounders is how you should be solving that problem. Find the best people
you possibly can who cover the areas that you're weakest in. Find people
who've experienced growing a similar company, they'll be invaluable to you.

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gnicholas
You're right that many VCs will be less enthusiastic to work with a solo
founder. This is partly because it's taken as a sign that you can't convince
any friends to work on this idea with you, signaling either that the idea is
not great or that you are not great to work with.

But this doesn't mean you should lower your standards too much to find someone
just to put down on paper. If you're a technical founder then you can build a
lot on your own and bring on a business-focused founder when the time is
right.

