
Entrepreneurs Are Better Off Going It Alone, Study Says - kennethfriedman
https://www.wsj.com/articles/entrepreneurs-are-better-off-going-it-alone-study-says-11556503320
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_Nat_
Abstract from "Sole Survivors: Solo Ventures versus Founding Teams" [1], Jason
Greenberg (2018-01-23):

> A widespread scholarly and popular consensus suggests that new ventures
> perform better when launched by teams, rather than individuals. This view
> has become so pervasive that many of the foremost investors rarely, if ever,
> fund startups founded by a solo entrepreneur. Despite this belief in the
> superiority of teams in the startup process, little empirical evidence has
> been used to examine this key question. In this paper, we examine the
> implications of founding alone versus as a group by using a unique dataset
> of crowdfunded companies that together generated approximately $358 million
> in total revenue. We show that companies started by solo founders survive
> longer than those started by teams. Further, organizations started by solo
> founders generate more revenue than organizations started by founder pairs,
> and do not perform significantly different than larger teams. This suggests
> that the taken-for-granted assumption among scholars that entrepreneurship
> is best performed by teams should be reevaluated, with implications for
> theories of team performance and entrepreneurial strategy.

This study's from early-2018, while the parent-article is recent. Just a late
report, or did this same author publish a follow-up study recently?

[1]:
[https://www.ssrn.com/abstract=3107898](https://www.ssrn.com/abstract=3107898)

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PaulRobinson
As ever, surely the true answer here is "it depends". Prickly personalities
are going to do better in solo enterprises (less arguing), whilst people with
a tendency to procrastinate might find a team dynamic encouraging.

I think I personally would thrive more in a partnership or team, but then I've
been running a limited company with a mate for over a decade as a side
business, and it's hard for us to agree on anything. He's not a bad guy, he
just has different goals to me.

And when I reflect on that, I realise many of my goals are about being able to
be my own boss. As such, my next venture will likely be solo.

Definitely not for everybody, though!

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raarts
It depends indeed. I faired a lot better when I went at it alone. Could be me,
I just like to be the boss.

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Data_Junkie
People need to stop posting links to paywalls. Hacker News should ban this.

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ecmascript
Paywall, is there any way around it?

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ryandvm
Yeah - pay the content creators.

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ecmascript
I would if they gave me an option to pay for a single article and not to
create an account.

It's unreasonable to pay a subscription fee to hundreds of news outlets.

