Don’t Buy the Myth that Every Startup Needs a Co-Founder

Widespread wisdom indicates that when it arrives to launching a startup, you want co-founders. But a new analyze finds that solo founders can in reality be thriving — if they have the assist of co-creators. Co-creators are people today or companies that engage in a essential purpose in aiding a founder develop their organization, but devoid of obtaining the manage or equity of a formal co-founder. Based mostly on more than 100 interviews with solo founders, the authors explain three popular forms of co-creators: employees, alliances, and benefactors. Of course, doing work with a co-founder can be the right determination in some instances. But the study illustrates how co-creators can present several of the exact crucial resources, connections, and strategies as a co-founder could offer, with a good deal a lot less risk.

One particular of the earliest and most critical selections that startup founders deal with is whether to go it on your own or discover a co-founder. Many sector veterans argue that remaining a solo founder is a recipe for disaster, and some venture cash companies and incubators even explicitly propose towards funding solo founders. But are co-founders genuinely the only path to entrepreneurial achievements?

There is plenty of knowledge illustrating the gains of working with a founding workforce. Just one report located that 80% of all billion-dollar firms introduced since 2005 have experienced two or a lot more founders — but of system, that usually means that a not-insignificant 20% of these prosperous companies were being established by just a person founder. Google, Fb, Airbnb, and countless other well-identified businesses ended up started by groups — but Amazon, Dell, eBay, Tumblr, and lots of other folks have obtained huge achievement with a solo founder. In our current research, we explored the things that permit solo-established businesses like these to realize success, and we identified a critical nuance: Most thriving “solo” founders are not essentially solo.

By a collection of in-depth interviews as nicely as an examination of quantitative details from a lot more than 100 solo founders, we found that when these people didn’t have co-founders with fairness and voting legal rights, they did have co-creators. Our research illustrated how individuals and businesses who aren’t formal co-founders can nevertheless participate in a important function in assisting founders construct their corporations (without forcing them to give up equity or threat co-founder drama). Especially, we recognized three prevalent types of co-creators that can give significant aid to solo founders:

Staff members

For founders who presently have some funding (from personal savings, a prior exit, etc.), it can often make feeling for early personnel to serve as co-creators. Though these staff members will usually anticipate some equity, the ability to fork out a hard cash salary will permit founders to get obtain to the expertise they need to commence their company without the need of giving up substantial fairness stake (not to mention jeopardizing the rigidity and conflict that can often appear along with co-founders). For illustration, we interviewed one particular solo founder who experienced just bought a further company for a modest payout. With his earnings from that exit, he was in a position to seek the services of workers for his next venture rather than relying on co-founders who would work for equity without income.

Likewise, though eBay founder Pierre Omidyar is usually credited with remaining a solo founder, he released the organization with the profit of a $1 million payout after offering a further organization to Microsoft. Those money enabled him to seek the services of Chris Agarpao and Jeff Skroll early on, equally of whom performed instrumental roles in the company’s accomplishment. Likewise, whilst a lot of know Eric Yuan as the solo founder of Zoom, he in fact launched the firm alongside 40 engineers who adopted him from WebEx.

Alliances

Of program, not each and every founder is equipped to hire personnel ideal away. If paid aid is not an choice, founders can variety get-acquire alliances with present corporations. For occasion, we spoke with the founder of an EdTech startup who experienced a potent complex track record, but zero sales knowledge or connections to the university districts that ended up his target buyers. He viewed as bringing on a co-founder to fill these gaps, but as an alternative, he identified a further business that was presently promoting a portfolio of associated items to multiple school districts. He organized an alliance in which he gave the companion organization a slice of the revenue in trade for their support marketing and advertising his product to their existing buyer foundation. This alliance gave the founder accessibility to the revenue and internet marketing methods he lacked on his very own, devoid of diluting his fairness.

Other illustrations abound. Look at Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx, which sells shapewear in more than 50 countries. Her idea could have in no way turn into a billion-dollar small business if Sam Kaplan, the operator of the proven producing firm Highland Mills, experienced not taken a chance on her and agreed to manufacture her solution. With the aid of alliances like this, Blakely was in a position to keep 100% ownership of Spanx even though major its meteoric rise.

Benefactors

Eventually, lots of of the founders we talked to relied strongly on benefactors: people or corporations who offered these business people with connections, dollars, and/or guidance with out any expectation of reciprocation or payment. For instance, one founder we talked to had restricted assets and necessary a whole lot of highly-priced products to commence his firm. At to start with, he assumed he would want to uncover a deep-pocketed co-founder or investor — but then he realized that a close mate of his owned a modest company with the essential devices. This pal enable the founder use the equipment, and even asked his have staff to aid the founder out, all no cost of charge. The arrangement continued until the founder attained enough earnings to make his very own hires and order his individual equipment.

To be confident, not all of us have this kind of generous good friends. But there is essentially a extended heritage of benefactors supporting the ambitions of solo founders. Henry Ford, for case in point, certain a number of good friends (together with blacksmiths, engineers, and even his manager at the time, Thomas Edison) to donate their time, skills, and sources to aid him create his 1st prototype styles. In the same way, Mint’s speedy early advancement was substantially bolstered by solo founder Aaron Patzer’s capability to encourage numerous effectively-identified particular finance bloggers to promote his company on their blogs for free of charge.

***

Early personnel, alliances, and benefactors might not acquire the exact recognition as founders — but these co-creators can play a central purpose in the early development of a enterprise. Think about the history just one of the world’s most worthwhile models, Amazon.com. Sure, Jeff Bezos is the firm’s “solo” founder. But no, he did not create the enterprise by yourself. He had quite a few co-creators, including early staff these kinds of as Paul Davis, who oversaw the back again-conclude progress for Amazon.com and was “intimately associated with quite a few elements of receiving [the] company started” Tom Schonhoff, who constructed Amazon’s complete client services department from the floor up and Shel Kaphan, who Bezos has described as “the most critical particular person at any time in the historical past of Amazon.com.”

Co-creators like these can present lots of of the exact same critical methods, connections, and suggestions as a formal co-founder could possibly offer you, without having requiring the founder to give up command or deal with co-founder tensions. This can be a considerable advantage — following all, it’s a lot simpler to say goodbye to an disappointed co-creator with no possession than to an unhappy co-operator with a lot of it. For instance, Mark Zuckerberg’s break up from co-founder Eduardo Saverin led to a substantial and messy lawsuit that ended with a multi-billion-greenback settlement for Saverin. And scenarios like these are far more widespread than one may well assume, with a recent survey locating that 43% of business founders are forced to invest in out their co-founders owing to rifts and power struggles. Of system, co-founders can increase a good deal of worth, and occasionally they are undoubtedly the most effective option — but they are not the only way for business people to get the assist they will need. With the ideal co-creators in their corner, a “solo” founder can go a long way.