Ask HN: Should I explicitly search for a co-founder?

3 points by ganadiniakshay 9 years ago | 7 comments

I had a cofounder who left because she is getting married and moving to another country and another cofounder who can't take the plunge because of personal reasons.

I have very high standards for work ethics and don'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.

gt565k 9 years ago |

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 9 years ago | |

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 9 years ago | | |

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.

wayn3 9 years ago | | |

You can borrow money against outstanding contracts easily.

ig1 9 years ago |

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.

gnicholas 9 years ago |

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.