I'm a single founder and can only say the experience is rather grinding.
I'm all up for the "If you don't help, at least don't get in the way" motto. I decided to pursue my current venture without a cofounder precisaly because I didn't find enough people that had both the skills and (understandably) the willingness to quit their nice paying jobs.
For me, it doesn't really make sense to have people aboard unless they add some real value to the two core functions of what a startup needs to do: building something and sell it. It's fine if you can't build it, but you better be damn good at selling it. Photo ops and "vision, mission and values" statements don't really justify a position on a bootstrapped startup that's trying to get a product out (this obviously varies, having well connected co-founders may make a lot of difference, some people are well worth their pay just because of their business karma).
The big problem of a solo venture, IMO, is that you find yourself doing these two roles simultaneously, which can be exhausting. It is for me, at least. I can do both rather well, but after a while I start finding it difficult to focus on designing a system for scalability, designing its database, reflecting on security, writing and testing Android code, building prospects lists and getting their contacts, getting meetings and attending them, fine-tuning your sales pitch and getting the man to write out a check. And I left out all the menial work that still has to be done.
By the end of the day, you're in agony not only because of that feature that is taking too long to build, but also for not getting enough customer meetings, because of not having enough positive answers and, mostly, because launch is (or should be) just around the corner and there's still a lot of stuff to be done and no one except you to take responsibility for it.
It's an emotional rollercoaster, so having the right partner seems like a good move.
I agree that it is exhausting. I'm 2 months into a solo founded startup and the mental fatigue is not what I expected. Reflecting on it now, it certainly makes sense, but I just didn't know that it can be so taxing.
I've told myself that if I make it to a next round of funding I need to find a partner stat.
Two months? Just wait. I'm 9 months in solo, and day-jobbing to pay for the bootstrap. It's incredibly exhausting.
If I could find a co-founder or two, I'd be thrilled. But finding someone really worth their weight hasn't happened yet. And I'm not going to just sit there and ignore this opportunity just because I can't find someone to hold my hand while I'm doing it. I'm going to get it out the door, even if I have to do every little thing myself.
Having a co-founder is great. But not having one is no excuse to not work.
I'd suspect there are a number of people in your shoes and in the shoes of this entire thread.
I read these responses and thought "Hmm I wonder what it is they're doing. Maybe I could help or at least offer some brain power?" then realized clicking usernames revealed dick-all about any one of you.
I had a thought "Why hasn't there been a matchmaking service for entrepreneurs?" A quick Google search gave me the answer: some already exist. You could try one of those. Alternatively you could use HN to help solicit help by using the about section or use posts like this to give some modicum of detail.
When I see nothing in your about section and nothing in these messages that seem to explain the "what" you're trying to accomplish, I have a hard time believing you're really serious about your search.
It's more likely that you have your own system of who you deal with or you're just passively searching, severely. That's all perfectly fine, just not something I would be doing in either of your shoes.
I've seriously offered co-founder positions to two people. One is actively involved, but not as a co-founder. He's my patent/IP lawyer, and an old friend I studied CS with in college. He doesn't want to be fully involved in a startup for a variety of good reasons, but he's willing to take equity for a little private practice work. The other is a former co-worker who would be my easy first choice for CTO. He's considering it, but hasn't decided yet and I'm not rushing him. He has good reasons to hesitate (like baby #5 on the way).
I've also done some "matchmaking" through networking and introductions, but I haven't yet met anyone else I'm willing to trust with it, or whom is ready to go for it (there have been several candidates). So I'm not in a rush to find a co-founder, and not making it my first priority. If it happens, it happens.
I took comments on a post to mean "I'm ready for" when I should've realized a lot of what we do as people is talk ourselves up to something.
I wouldn't consider it to be a poor idea at all. I was primarily trying to offer suggestions to help with passively searching when the need arose but I couldn't get around being specific, realizing it could partially sound mean or negative when that wasn't what I was going for at all.
Some investors say that they back the team, not so much the product. In which case, if you're going to need a partner to fulfill the vision you sell investors, you may want to pick one sooner.
Full time, I quit my job to dedicate myselff to this after a few rounds of discussing it and getting initial validation from both my targets (yes, it's a marketplace business, even worse to do it alone)
I'm all up for the "If you don't help, at least don't get in the way" motto. I decided to pursue my current venture without a cofounder precisaly because I didn't find enough people that had both the skills and (understandably) the willingness to quit their nice paying jobs.
For me, it doesn't really make sense to have people aboard unless they add some real value to the two core functions of what a startup needs to do: building something and sell it. It's fine if you can't build it, but you better be damn good at selling it. Photo ops and "vision, mission and values" statements don't really justify a position on a bootstrapped startup that's trying to get a product out (this obviously varies, having well connected co-founders may make a lot of difference, some people are well worth their pay just because of their business karma).
The big problem of a solo venture, IMO, is that you find yourself doing these two roles simultaneously, which can be exhausting. It is for me, at least. I can do both rather well, but after a while I start finding it difficult to focus on designing a system for scalability, designing its database, reflecting on security, writing and testing Android code, building prospects lists and getting their contacts, getting meetings and attending them, fine-tuning your sales pitch and getting the man to write out a check. And I left out all the menial work that still has to be done.
By the end of the day, you're in agony not only because of that feature that is taking too long to build, but also for not getting enough customer meetings, because of not having enough positive answers and, mostly, because launch is (or should be) just around the corner and there's still a lot of stuff to be done and no one except you to take responsibility for it.
It's an emotional rollercoaster, so having the right partner seems like a good move.