> "I will bring on talented people in executive roles who can complement me and make up for my own weaknesses, but I won't cofound again. I'd rather keep the smart, business-oriented people I know in masterminds where we can compare ideas and bounce thoughts off each other, than wade into business situations where our differences turn us into enemies and destroy the company."

Absolutely. I cannot agree with this more.

I don't think the issue is about visionaries vs behind-the-scenes guys. The problem is people making decisions outside their domain expertise. If you have a cofounder (eg a recent example from a company I've worked with) with no software experience his instincts are not going to serve the company well. I've seen this happen constantly, including recently with a guy who is humble, very nice, perfectly well intentioned, but has the wrong instincts and has undermined delivery of a product, probably adding 3 weeks to the development time.

The people with the expertise should have authority in those domains. If your CEO/solo founder is an engineer, then the marketing and sales guys should have authority over their areas-- and be held accountable to metrics, not micro-managed. And vice versa.

When you have three co-foundres you have three visions, even if they aren't visionary, and three people empowered to operate according to their vision, and it's a lot easier to just not fight over every little thing... until it blows up or you aren't executing well because you're executing at cross purposes.

With a single founder you have a single authority and a single vision. And thus you can be consistent in your execution.