There has been a lot of talk online concerning the Single Founder Startup. Most of this talk is about how it doesn't work, you can't start a startup by yourself. I don't think that's true. You CAN start a startup by yourself but you need to be able to wear a few different hats to do it. It's the wearing different hats thing that gets most people, and why it is still a great idea to have multiple founders, but if you know what they are going in you might have a chance. I'm going to list off what these different hats are and why you need them in just a second but first let's get an assumption out of the way.

I'm writing this for the yCombinator crowd, which is made up of people focused on starting technical startups, usually online. If you're 'startup' isn't technical then I'm probably not going to be very interesting to you. You have been warned.

The 3 Faces of the Lone Founder

The Lone Startup founder needs to have 3 different faces; Tech Wizard, Artist, and Seller. The Lone founder also needs to be so driven that it seems the only thing he CAN do is start a startup. He must be so driven that he can't stop thinking about it. He can't stop working 10 hours a night on it after working 8 hours at his day job. He can't make himself go to sleep until he has working code that brings him one step closer to his product. The Lone founder cannot be a slacker in any sense of the word. In fact if you're a slacker, if you like it better when someone tells you what to do next, you don't need to be involved with a startup at all. You can't be a founder, and you shouldn't try to work for a startup because you're only going to be a drag on the other people that are sweating blood to make things happen.

So why does the 'Lone Founder' need those three specific hats? Because without any one of those three jobs your startup isn't going to make it. I know this can be debated but I'm just going to let you know where I stand on this. If you can't sell your product to a SPECIFIC segment of the market, or you can't make it comfortable and useable for them, it almost doesn't matter how great your tech is. It is so easy for someone to start a company now that if you only have good tech somebody is going to come along with a team that can copy your tech, make it easy to use, and sell it to the right people. You might as well be the one to make money off your technical wizardry so you need to get it right the first time.

So you need three faces or, if you're lucky enough to be blest with smart friends, three founders for your startup. Let's talk about what each one brings to the table.

The Tech Wizard

The Tech Wizard is 'the Woz'. He knows the best tool to use, the best way to make it sing, and the best way to get things done. This is probably what most of you are, or want to be, so I won't spend too much time here. If you know that you can make a good technical product then you're the tech wizard. If you don't like the idea of 'selling' to people or you can't make a 'pretty' UI for your tech then you need to look for somebody else to fill those roles. It doesn't have to be two people it could be just one other person, but you need both. To get started you have to have great tech, or at least implement something in a new way, but that is only the start. You also need:

The Artist

This one is probably going to create some discussion, which is good, but I believe that you need someone who can make things look pretty. I know there are sites that aren't pretty and they do just fine cough craigslist cough but if you really want to up your chances of people using your site it's better to make it pretty. However, the most important job of the artist is to make things useable, don't use ajax just because it's cool. Don't add a lot of fluff to your site for no reason. Simple can be pretty too, in fact I would argue that it is better to make your site simple with just a few visual cues that make it more enjoyable for the average user. You need to be able to make simple layouts that are constructed from the user's perspective instead of driven by the tech. Think about how people will user your site and design it around their needs. Real Artists make things useable.

If you can make great tech, and make it simply pretty and easy to use you're almost there. To be a real Lone Founder you need one more face:

The Seller

Notice I did not call this face 'The MBA' or 'The Business Guy'. There is nothing wrong with your Seller being a business guy or having an MBA but you don't want to look for somebody who just has those 'qualifications'. The seller is the guy who knows who the target market is. When someone asks the question; 'Who is your target market' he needs to know the answer. I'll give you a hint, the answer isn't 'Everybody with an Internet Connection', that is just who can use your product, not your target market. The target market is the 10%, or 5%, or 1% of the population who really NEED your product. The people who need it so bad they are willing to pay money for it. It's possible that your target market isn't even the people that will use your product daily. The fact that you have made something people want to use could be what creates your target market. [ Google gets paid through ad sales, so their target market is people who buy ads, while their users are 'Everybody with an Internet Connection.' See the difference? ] You need somebody to sell your product to your target market, and if that scares you or you don't know how to answer those questions you need to find somebody who can.

So there are the three faces, do you have them all? Maybe you do, if so stop reading this and get to work! If you don't have them all you have two options. The first is to find other people who can fill in the roles you can't do. But, what if you can't find somebody, what if it's just you? Then it's time to bite your thumb at the rest of the world and go it alone anyway. The best way to learn how to do all three of these things is to start failing as quickly as possible.

The sooner you get out there and actually build something the sooner you're going to fail. The sooner you fail the sooner you're going to have insight into what went wrong. The best way to learn how to do all the things you need to do in a startup is to start one. Hindsight probably isn't 20/20 in this case, but it's much better than your foresight. If you want to start a startup just do it. If it works out, good job, if it doesn't then at least you'll be better prepared next time.

Now go get to work!

Brandon

If you have comments for this post discuss it here