Dear SaaStr: Should I Stay Solo or Should I Settle for a Co-founder?
I think this is one of the Top 5 most important questions in start-ups. Possibly, Top 1 in ultimate significance.
The answer for most of us: (x) most of us benefit from an A+ co-founder but (y) do not settle.
The #1 reason start-ups that have something (a few real customers, some early but real initial adoption), but still fail is that the founders implode or self-destruct, or just don’t act as a strong enough team.
Thus, you cannot settle. You have to find a great co-founder (or two). This is the most important hire you will ever make.
But, if you look empirically, 90%+ of Tech IPOs have very strong co-founders. Not single founders. Single founders can work, but statistically, the odds are against you. 94% of YCombinator startups have a co-founder and 90%+ of public SaaS companies. Not all. Zoom, Zscaler, ZoomInfo and more did just fine with a solo founder. But 94%.
Great data classic here from TechCrunch (Welcome To The Unicorn Club: Learning From Billion-Dollar Startups | TechCrunch) and Aileen Lee:
Personally, when I had a great co-founder that had my back, those times, I was 20x more effective than when I didn’t. Personally I’m not good enough to do it alone. Don’t know about you.
"Having a truly great co-founder can take you so, so far.
Some of us can do it all alone. But most of us can't." pic.twitter.com/H9vE5HUf2X
— Jason ✨👾SaaStr 2025 is May 13-15✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) December 27, 2024
But, I do believe you can find a co-founder later, in spirit at least. An ex-post facto co-founder.
So if you don’t have a great co-founder, just try to bring in amazing talent. If you do that, I think, one or two may rise above. Take true ownership of the company and the mission. And become an ex-post facto co-founder.
That saved my bacon.
