> No cofounder = no accelerator = constantly stuck in neutral.
I cofounded a startup that was eventually sold for $64 million. My cofounder forced me out of the company and stole all of my equity from me, costing me nearly $13M. So cofounders are not all they're cracked up to be.
As for the general negative tone, businesses fail - you don't, unless you quit trying. My advice: work on something with a short path to revenue for now, and stop taking yourself so seriously. After the thing with my cofounder, I had several ambitious ideas to make millions again, but those were failures and I was basically emotionally destroyed. So I finally made something with less potential, that was less interesting to me, but with a clear and simple value proposition for customers. I also developed a way to market directly to my potential customers for free. That business is now doing quite well, and the mere fact that people are paying for something I created has completely turned around the depression I was in.
Remember this: Walmart makes billions selling inexpensive crap that they buy from other people. Their innovation? They charge more for their products than they spent buying them. At least until you can afford to take risks on interesting, swing for the fences kind of stuff, get rich doing boring things. It's easier and faster.
This is very much part of my frustration. I put my pseudo-resume on CFL and got blasted with dozens of requests, so many that I had to put assholish "don't contact me unless" prerequisites on my profile. But here's the thing I've realized (and maybe you did, more painfully): I know not to get involved with a stranger or even an acquaintance that I haven't known for years. Finding someone who can produce at an obsessive, passionate level like you (hopefully) will is extremely difficult and riddled with risk. Heck, just finding someone who is a net positive is hard enough.
If you co-found with a non-bestie, not only are you taking all that risk on yourself, but investors are going to look the other way. They know it better than anyone: startup teams are like marriages. It can get ugly really, really quickly, completely obliterating the business in the process.
I have an unhealthy envy of some cofounding teams that just were, no work involved at all. It's like they took the undisputed hardest part of starting a company and just sidestepped it. Digital Ocean is a team of brothers, for example. Many big startups were formed out of happenstance high school or college buddies. But guess what? When you grow up in a tiny town in flyover country where entrepreneurship is unheard of, those people don't exist. I did go to a top-10 university, but it wasn't particularly entrepreneurial like Stanford or Berkeley. Everyone I knew there is now a banker, lawyer, doctor, etc. My only engineering buddy from college has been at Microsoft for 12 years and has two kids, and even still, I've made several unsuccessful runs at him (and others).
I'm allowing myself to be a little whinier than I would under a real account, so sorry if it sounds ultra-negative.
Meh, in for a penny...
Dear God I hate the concept of marriage. It has stolen all my friends and all my potential co-founders. I secretly celebrate divorce.
I knew him very well....for about 5 years beforehand, and there are few entrepreneurs that come with a better resume and bankroll (which is why I agreed to take 20% of the company as a cofounder - he put up all the money and his history and contacts all but assured a successful exit).
What I didn't really know about was his temper and emotional issues when it came to business. He was essentially a completely different person. I thought I knew him well, and it turns out I wasn't even close. The beginning of the end turned out to be when one of his 7 ex-fiances (not exaggerating here btw) started flirting with me at a party and kept contacting me even after I told her it was a bad idea. I didn't reciprocate, but it didn't matter. After that, it all went downhill.
> If you co-found with a non-bestie, not only are you taking all that risk on yourself
I co-founded a company with my best friend in high school. He screwed me 6 months into the biz. As an individual, the fires of entrepreneurship completely changed him.
>At least until you can afford to take risks on interesting, swing for the fences kind of stuff, get rich doing boring things. It's easier and faster.
Seriously. There are some niches where a given amount of work can reliably produce $100, $200, $500 in recurring income. It's not going to let you retire, but who wouldn't say no to getting that much extra per month?
And then you can repeat the effort, and it adds up.
I cofounded a startup that was eventually sold for $64 million. My cofounder forced me out of the company and stole all of my equity from me, costing me nearly $13M. So cofounders are not all they're cracked up to be.
As for the general negative tone, businesses fail - you don't, unless you quit trying. My advice: work on something with a short path to revenue for now, and stop taking yourself so seriously. After the thing with my cofounder, I had several ambitious ideas to make millions again, but those were failures and I was basically emotionally destroyed. So I finally made something with less potential, that was less interesting to me, but with a clear and simple value proposition for customers. I also developed a way to market directly to my potential customers for free. That business is now doing quite well, and the mere fact that people are paying for something I created has completely turned around the depression I was in.
Remember this: Walmart makes billions selling inexpensive crap that they buy from other people. Their innovation? They charge more for their products than they spent buying them. At least until you can afford to take risks on interesting, swing for the fences kind of stuff, get rich doing boring things. It's easier and faster.