Yes, You Need Pants
Don’t think about pants in terms of equity.
[...]the ideal number of pants is two or three.
I feel incredibly lucky to have my brilliant pants[...]
Revel in the intensity of your pants team.
Oh and if the author happens to be reading, it's 'for all intents and purposes' rather than 'intensive purposes'.
This is like the NYC vs SF debate, we are like schoolchildren. "My way is better". Now it's the single vs co-founder debate. Statistically, two people starting a company are usually better than one. But remember that every situation is unique, and what works for people works for people. That's the reason that we have so many different types of companies.
I also tried to clarify twice that I'm talking about companies with a strong software component, where team is so essential. At the end of the day, everyone has to carve their own path, no arguments, but there are general points that can increase the odds in your favor and that's merely the warning I tried to give.
I believe that if you happen to find a co-founder that truly works well with you, amazing things can happen. That is definitely the highest percentage way to go. I am a newer entrepreneur so I get what you are saying. But with very little connections and no real experience, it is much better to start as a solo guy (like you mentioned) and then hopefully find someone along the way.
Although, I still see no reason why those people can't be employees. It all depends on the type of leader that you are. Regardless, good post (and I love your list of lawyers, that's how I found mine, so I appreciate it).
I mean, almost everybody agreed about 'you need a co-founder' until last week, and I was convinced about it. Your reactionary post made it look like the argument had weakness and needed to be defended.
I think that in my case, it's just a matter of 'it should happen in a natural way': let's work, if I need a co-founder, it should appear on the way, if I don't, it will not appear.
If your in SF or any other startup hub then thats fine, but what if your in a proverbial co-founder desert?
Now my situation will be somewhat unique, being in China and all(not even a big city, some backwater, the main industry here is agriculture, this is China's rice basket) but I really wouldn't know where to start and many others would be the same.
Sometimes finding a "co-founder" could take more time than developing the whole project. Time, that btw, you don't have. Time = Money. Money that you don't have either.
So...
If I ask you "Name a friend that you would love to work with and believe he is up to the entrepreneurial challenge of this project" and you take more than 10 seconds to figure out who might be suitable for the challenge, you simply don't have one.
I believe co-founders, partners (however you wanna call them) is more of an attitude thing than a skill thing. Startups require a lot of balls to jump in, even more if you have a full time job and you need to quit it to get this project on track.
Searching for the right partner could be just like waiting for the bus. I could just stay at the bus stop or start walking (coding) to the next stop and then maybe wait there. You could even get to meet your new biz partner half way the road.
It's a good head-breaker paradox. Wait till I find someone to work with or simply start doing it by yourself.
Partners don't always have to actually START the startup with you. They could jump in at any time and it could be extremely handy. Having an extra pair of eyes and hands is always good (you will have to learn to filter critics that you didn't have before and convert them into feedback)
Who's "You"? Does he know every person planning to be a single founder that well?
This could be actually better in terms of equity. Since you already started the work you could ask for 50+% ;)
Because you can't stand the pain.
Because you would like to end up with 10% of the company after working 14 hour days.
Because you need someone to complain to after every setback.
Because you don't have the money or patience.
Because you don't know how to hire the right employees.
Because you're not an entrepreneur.
