"I got an email from Paul Graham saying basically that being a single founder put me at a disadvantage, because two founders can talk each other out of bad ideas, but I appeared too stubborn."
Fortune 500's biggest company is a single-founder company. Most Fortune 500 companies were founded by a single person. Don't let detractors tell you single-founder companies don't work.
> I got an email from Paul Graham saying basically that being a single founder put me at a disadvantage, because two founders can talk each other out of bad ideas, but I appeared too stubborn. I’m not entirely sure what this means, as I was under the impression, from reading his essays, that Paul was against single founders because they might give up too easily, so a founder who sticks to his idea would be desirable.
Having worked both solo and with partners, I will never again run a business solo for an extended period of time. If the business is already profitable, I'll hire a competent GM-level person to help run it. If it isn't profitable enough to do that, then I'm going to spend a majority of my time recruiting someone for whom the company will be greater than the sum of its parts.
Having someone to talk to is huge. If they pick out a single one of your blindspots or bad points, that could make the business 20% more successful. Really, there's a long list of things that can go wrong in business. Tweaking and refining at any stage could easily give a 1%, 2%, 5% edge. Those stack up really fast.
Solo isn't so good. Partners are good. If profitable, you can hire some talented to take that role. If not profitable, I'd strongly encourage you to get over your... well, I was about to call it delusions of grandeur, but that isn't fair to say. For me, in the past I've fallen in love with my ideas, thought they were worth more than they were, and thought the execution would come fairly easily. I was delusional. Maybe you're not, but if you don't have money coming in and an obvious winner on your hands, you might rethink what the business is worth and go recruit someone. Have some sort of vesting or buyout provisions if it doesn't work and go get a cofounder.
I was the biggest pro-solo guy in the world previously, but I was mistaken. You got a high fever? Tough shit, it's just you running the business, make it work anyways. You ripped the cartilage in your knee and can't walk? Tough shit, hobble over the taxi stand, get a taxi to the bank, and limp/drag yourself in to do your business.
Having a team is good. If profitable, hire a GM-type, that'd work. If not strongly think about recruiting a cofounder.
I interviewed as a single founder as well. They spent the entire interview trying to directly match my idea to existing markets. I probably appeared stubborn as I tried to explain how my idea was different.
How could I appear other than stubborn?
If they had said, OK I think we understand your idea but your market doesn't seem big enough (or something to that effect), maybe things would have turned out differently than 11 minutes of what seemed to me like "we don't get it," when they probably did and didn't believe in it.
Well, in any case, I got some good feedback and I still appreciate the opportunity to discuss my company with them.
Hindsight may be 20-20, but I still have to fend off the regret for not redirecting the conversation.
As a word of advice to future single founders, they are going to aggressively push you the entire time. Be prepared to concede to them at some point even if they don't "get it." Otherwise, you will appear stubborn.
> I was under the impression, from reading his essays, that Paul was against single founders because they might give up too easily, so a founder who sticks to his idea would be desirable.
My understanding of Paul's argument has been that most initial ideas are bad and that a successful startup requires changing course until your idea matches a marketable need. This suggests an important distinction between stubbornness - refusing to change direction - and persistence - refusing to give up.
Caveat: I don't know the author and have no idea whether he is stubborn, persistent, or anything else.
+1. Sure I am wondering about historio.us vs Instapaper but congrats on the interview! +1 on the design + Like the feature 'search any word appearing on the page'. Really cool URL.
Djangy got an interview and then after several days, a rejection letter. We're too similar to Heroku.
You know what? I'm not really that upset. They made a good decision from their point of view. But we have 200+ beta users, lots of positive feedback, and have a good product.
We don't need YC to tell us that. So just keep on truckin. Get users, iterate, and make YC regret rejecting you :-)
I would like to post here to thank you all for your amazing support, you are a fantastic group of people. I hope everyone who didn't get accepted to this batch can see this, I know it will help their morale, as it has greatly helped me.
It's not clear from the article, but I hope you had the chance to spend a bit of time in California, looking around, seeing some of the sites, and so on. It'd be a pity to go all that way and not have a look around!
Also: it looks like you live in a part of the world that is particularly nice and beautiful in its own way. You ought to do something to encourage visiting hackers to stop by so as to have some people to chat with once in a while.
Καλημέρα ,
Κατ΄αρχάς συγχαρητήρια που έφτασες μέχρι την συνεντευξη! Η γνώμη μου ειναι οτι δεν θα πρέπει να απογοητευτείς αλλά να το δεις σαν ευκαιρία για ένα νέο ξεκίνημα.
http://www.iol.co.za/lifestyle/the-power-of-no-1.746628
George.
I see this is the Greek corner of the comments section, so I should also congratulate Stavros for going through the experience, and hopefully it altered his perception in ways that will help him in the future. Stavro, my offer still stands, if you're ever back in London, drop me a line and I'll buy you a beer.
"I was under the impression, from reading his essays, that Paul was against single founders because they might give up too easily, so a founder who sticks to his idea would be desirable."
I see. However, when your users like your service so much that they volunteer their time building browser extensions and integrating it into their services, I don't think it's "too stubborn" to follow through...
EDIT: I realise that's not the point you were making, I am just commenting with my thoughts on the matter.
I have friends who suggested it, but I was kind of set on YC for the experience and advice they can offer, I'll see what my options are, though, thank you.
Being invited is a strong sign that you/your idea have merit. But instead of having to deal with funding/investors/other crap, you get to work on your idea, in a "remote area of Greece", be your own boss and grow the company how you want. I can very easily see this idea being modestly successful and giving you a lot of freedom to work on other ideas.
Thanks, I think that would be ideal. Still, I think YC would facilitate this in that you don't really need to put as much effort into networking (they do it for you), so I can work on my idea in Greece while still getting introduced to interesting people.
Your site and idea look great. I would probably move away from the paid accounts and try to monetize another way. I am sure you probably do have some paid users but I wouldn't pay for a service like this even though I like the idea. You'd probably be better off with an advertising model.
Thank you. I've found that paid users actually provide the most revenue at this stage, as the advertising model needs a bit of scale to work well. I think it does have great potential to work in the future, though.
A very well-thought out site and a good implementation (I've just tried it). I'm going to use it.
I'm a single founder and whilst I've never reached a point with stratospheric income, the businesses that I have built in the 15 years I've been an entrepreneur have been great. I've enjoyed life. For me, being a single founder has always meant quick decisions and I employ people to compliment me. I'm not a 'finisher' - I'm an ideas person - and so I needed to employ people who would keep me on track and help me finish. There is no right or wrong way in terms of the number of founders, my opinion, and indeed I have both seen and experienced that having more than one founder can lead to disagreements. Good luck with Historious. I really like it
Thank you, there are definitely advantages and disadvantages to being a single founder (avoiding founder drama is an advantage, for sure). I'm glad you've managed to work things out for you, after all is said and done, I don't think there's anything people like us would enjoy more than running a startup, even if it's not wildly successful.
excellent writeup, great perspectives -- thanks for sharing!
> They did seem to be a bit dismissive about the product (as in “why would I use this, I already have bookmarks in my browser”), but I’m sure that’s just standard procedure in this sort of interviews.
i'm curious what others' experiences are on this front?
Nevertheless, you kick ass. You are from Europe (me too), from "secondary" country (me too), one founder (me too), you did make it to the interview (I didn't).
Just an aside on histori.us, it's a useful feature, we wanted to do the same but never got round to it. I noticed today however that when you're logged in to Google, and search, there is the option to just search "Visited pages". Although a super-set of your bookmarks, it's still useful, and free... I'm not sure how long the option has been there.
what did you tell them when they said 'i have already bookmarks in my browser'?
i started hacking on a similar idea (a chrome extension that monitors every url I visit and logs them with a web service that performs snapshots and full text searches), but then realized chrome's history already performs full text searching.
I said that it's not comparable, as the browser only stores the title and gives you lists, etc. Something like Google Bookmarks is a more direct competitor, but I don't think that's the thing to watch out for either, as it seems to be someone's weekend project and they don't really develop it any more. I'm much more worried about Pinboard, for example.
I can't speak for your specific case, but I would guess that stubborness would indeed work against you. The rules for single cofounders work the same as for teams: call out YC when they incorrectly correct something you know to be valid (and back it up) but if the criticism/idea they inject is good then roll with it and riff on it with them. You'd do the same, presumably, if you were chatting with your entrepreneur friends... I'm not sure it's really that different; it's basically a panel of hackers :)
I wasn't aware of them suggesting anything that I dismissed. It's my policy to consider every suggestion, be it from users or not, and I don't recall them suggesting anything...
Thank you, I'm not aware of the YC guys saying anything about not talking about the experience, and I don't think I'm being disrespectful to anyone, so here it is!
I have to ask what benefits your idea offers over something like diigo.com or even delicious.com. You present the idea slightly differently from diigo, but in the end diigo does exactly the same things, and then some (a lot more actually). I don't mean to discourage you at all, I'm just wondering what I may be missing here.
The disadvantage I see in all these services is, actually, the fact that they do more. Most people don't want to think about bookmarks, they just want an easy way to add them and then find them again. The fact that you never really have to visit the site, and that you can just click a button to bookmark things and then find them just by recalling the slightest detail is what sets historious apart, in my opinion.
However, different people will need different things. I just think there's a market there for both approaches.
[+] [-] logop|15 years ago|reply
Fortune 500's biggest company is a single-founder company. Most Fortune 500 companies were founded by a single person. Don't let detractors tell you single-founder companies don't work.
[+] [-] StavrosK|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mkarmac|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lionhearted|15 years ago|reply
Having worked both solo and with partners, I will never again run a business solo for an extended period of time. If the business is already profitable, I'll hire a competent GM-level person to help run it. If it isn't profitable enough to do that, then I'm going to spend a majority of my time recruiting someone for whom the company will be greater than the sum of its parts.
Having someone to talk to is huge. If they pick out a single one of your blindspots or bad points, that could make the business 20% more successful. Really, there's a long list of things that can go wrong in business. Tweaking and refining at any stage could easily give a 1%, 2%, 5% edge. Those stack up really fast.
Solo isn't so good. Partners are good. If profitable, you can hire some talented to take that role. If not profitable, I'd strongly encourage you to get over your... well, I was about to call it delusions of grandeur, but that isn't fair to say. For me, in the past I've fallen in love with my ideas, thought they were worth more than they were, and thought the execution would come fairly easily. I was delusional. Maybe you're not, but if you don't have money coming in and an obvious winner on your hands, you might rethink what the business is worth and go recruit someone. Have some sort of vesting or buyout provisions if it doesn't work and go get a cofounder.
I was the biggest pro-solo guy in the world previously, but I was mistaken. You got a high fever? Tough shit, it's just you running the business, make it work anyways. You ripped the cartilage in your knee and can't walk? Tough shit, hobble over the taxi stand, get a taxi to the bank, and limp/drag yourself in to do your business.
Having a team is good. If profitable, hire a GM-type, that'd work. If not strongly think about recruiting a cofounder.
[+] [-] GICodeWarrior|15 years ago|reply
How could I appear other than stubborn?
If they had said, OK I think we understand your idea but your market doesn't seem big enough (or something to that effect), maybe things would have turned out differently than 11 minutes of what seemed to me like "we don't get it," when they probably did and didn't believe in it.
Well, in any case, I got some good feedback and I still appreciate the opportunity to discuss my company with them.
Hindsight may be 20-20, but I still have to fend off the regret for not redirecting the conversation.
As a word of advice to future single founders, they are going to aggressively push you the entire time. Be prepared to concede to them at some point even if they don't "get it." Otherwise, you will appear stubborn.
[+] [-] RyanMcGreal|15 years ago|reply
> I was under the impression, from reading his essays, that Paul was against single founders because they might give up too easily, so a founder who sticks to his idea would be desirable.
My understanding of Paul's argument has been that most initial ideas are bad and that a successful startup requires changing course until your idea matches a marketable need. This suggests an important distinction between stubbornness - refusing to change direction - and persistence - refusing to give up.
Caveat: I don't know the author and have no idea whether he is stubborn, persistent, or anything else.
[+] [-] StavrosK|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zackattack|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] endlessvoid94|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] harscoat|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] StavrosK|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] endlessvoid94|15 years ago|reply
You know what? I'm not really that upset. They made a good decision from their point of view. But we have 200+ beta users, lots of positive feedback, and have a good product.
We don't need YC to tell us that. So just keep on truckin. Get users, iterate, and make YC regret rejecting you :-)
[+] [-] ig1|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] phlux|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] StavrosK|15 years ago|reply
Thanks again!
[+] [-] davidw|15 years ago|reply
Also: it looks like you live in a part of the world that is particularly nice and beautiful in its own way. You ought to do something to encourage visiting hackers to stop by so as to have some people to chat with once in a while.
[+] [-] StavrosK|15 years ago|reply
Greece is fantastic, it's just amazingly beautiful. Maybe we can organise sprints on the beach, that would be quite nice...
[+] [-] gspyrou|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alexandros|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] StavrosK|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] akkartik|15 years ago|reply
Discussion of determination vs flexibility: http://paulgraham.com/founders.html http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1820561
[+] [-] StavrosK|15 years ago|reply
EDIT: I realise that's not the point you were making, I am just commenting with my thoughts on the matter.
[+] [-] mcxx|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] StavrosK|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iworkforthem|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bobds|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hackoder|15 years ago|reply
Being invited is a strong sign that you/your idea have merit. But instead of having to deal with funding/investors/other crap, you get to work on your idea, in a "remote area of Greece", be your own boss and grow the company how you want. I can very easily see this idea being modestly successful and giving you a lot of freedom to work on other ideas.
[+] [-] StavrosK|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] paradox95|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] StavrosK|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] inovica|15 years ago|reply
I'm a single founder and whilst I've never reached a point with stratospheric income, the businesses that I have built in the 15 years I've been an entrepreneur have been great. I've enjoyed life. For me, being a single founder has always meant quick decisions and I employ people to compliment me. I'm not a 'finisher' - I'm an ideas person - and so I needed to employ people who would keep me on track and help me finish. There is no right or wrong way in terms of the number of founders, my opinion, and indeed I have both seen and experienced that having more than one founder can lead to disagreements. Good luck with Historious. I really like it
[+] [-] maneesh|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] StavrosK|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] PStamatiou|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] StavrosK|15 years ago|reply
Also: I'd love to meet up.
[+] [-] jdp23|15 years ago|reply
> They did seem to be a bit dismissive about the product (as in “why would I use this, I already have bookmarks in my browser”), but I’m sure that’s just standard procedure in this sort of interviews.
i'm curious what others' experiences are on this front?
[+] [-] atirip|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _grrr|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] necrodome|15 years ago|reply
i started hacking on a similar idea (a chrome extension that monitors every url I visit and logs them with a web service that performs snapshots and full text searches), but then realized chrome's history already performs full text searching.
[+] [-] StavrosK|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JofArnold|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] StavrosK|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] citizenkeys|15 years ago|reply
Are there other blog posts by other people that have been through this experience?
[+] [-] StavrosK|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] archon810|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] StavrosK|15 years ago|reply
However, different people will need different things. I just think there's a market there for both approaches.