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Comment by davemel37 | Hacker News Reader

It seems half these questions are from Single Founders. Considering YC's interest in experimenting with who and what they fund...

Has YC ever considered a class of only single founders and trying to solve the problems YC anticipates with single founder startups (i.e. emotional support, etc...)

It seems to me that the demand is there, and the potential for single founders to succeed is certainly possible... why not experiment putting together a track that "fills in the blanks" for singe founders much the way YC does with legal and accounting for startups to get started.

Edit: I recognize the signaling issue of not being able to convince a cofounder to join, etc... but sometimes signals are just noise.

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What we've thought about the most is creating a better way for potential cofounders to meet each other.

Do you think it's usually possible for two potential cofounders who don't already know one another to sufficiently evaluate one another quickly enough to start a company together in the short term (say, less than 3 months)?

There seem to be similar challenges to creating a scalable solution for finding an SO/spouse (another unsolved problem).

Perhaps YC could pay people to take a 4-12 week startup school, in which group projects were heavily encouraged. If a company was formed out of the school, YC would get the right to invest at the standard investment terms.

YC actually has a new MOOC lined up. Maybe encourage group work in it?

https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-changes

This sounds very similar to a programme in London called Entrepreneur First where they recruit individuals based on their technical skills and then form ideas and teams during the programme.

There are precedents for quickly building trust among people who don't know each other.

For example a mountaineering class at the National Outdoor Leadership School puts students who don't know each other, and might not know anything about climbing, into serious high-mountain situations for a month. At the end of the class, groups of students head off on "small group expeditions" for a few days without instructors. NOLS has an excellent safety record and students often form strong friendships.

The military is another institution that takes people who don't know each other and quickly forms bonds of trust and mutual understanding to perform under very serious conditions.

Granted--those are carefully managed situations where the people are facing shared challenges. But maybe that's what YC would need to create in order to foster an environment in which founders can build strong enough relationships to feel comfortable building companies together.

Building trust is one component, but it's equally important to explore whether you're compatible with your cofounder (or SO) across a wide range of emotions and circumstances. There are people I personally know pretty well who I trust but don't think I'm very compatible with. They might be great advisors or board members, but I wouldn't want them as a cofounder.

Like you said, in a constrained environment like the military, it might be possible to achieve this in a short period of time through deliberate actions. I'm not sure how much that approach would prepare potential cofounders, since they're going to be operating in a much more ambiguous and freeform environment.

NOLS is probably a better model than the military.

Thanks for answering. Prehaps a batch of single founders is a great way to do this. (i.e. they all work on their own ideas, and at the end of the batch, they consolidate based on relationships they hit off, success of individual ideas, etc...)

I think YC would agree that people in the same YC class make some outstandingly strong friendships.

Yes, maybe suggest single founders live in the same house/apartment complex...

If there was a YC/HN supported cofounder matching program, I'm guessing it would have a lot more success than other attempts that have popped up. However, some important qualities of a good cofounder match are hard to quantify and require serious (and often confrontational) interaction.

Perhaps if YC let individuals apply without an idea to a loosely structured hackathon/conference, some good relationships would form. YC could fund the whole thing, and take a small stake in any resulting companies. Though, that's a little bit legally murky, so some consideration would need to be put into the means by which YC would benefit.

I did apply for the YC summer batch 2016, and for the YC fellowship through "Apply HN". I wasn't selected but someone saw my application and contacted me to become my cofounder. It didn't end up working out but I can see how public applications can be a way to meet cofounders.

I spend more time with my cofounder than with my wife. I cannot imagine co-founding with anyone I havent known closely for 1yr+, ideally much longer. This is especially for non-technical co-founders who would provide value after i've put in the work to technically de-risk the company. I dont think this is about gauging technical skills, it is about gauging long-term aspirations, motivations, behavior under pressure, and response to ethically challenging situations. You can ask about these in a simple interview, but people can easily be dishonest.

Exactly this. I would compare choosing a cofounder to getting married. It's not a decision that should be taken lightly, and it's better to stay single than try to settle with the wrong person or someone you don't know very well. Founder disputes are one of the biggest causes of company failure.

There are more single founder successes[1] than VCs would lead you to believe. Maybe not so many in the unicorn category which is all VCs really care about - but you're not a VC, it's not unicorn or broke for you. I think most of us would still consider it a success if you only managed to replace your income, but got to work on something you enjoy and to be your own boss. But you'll need to bootstrap rather than secure VC funding if your company doesn't have unicorn potential.

That said, being a single founder is HARD. You need someone else to talk to, to bounce ideas off, to offer emotional support during the dark days where you doubt yourself and can't see a path to success. But you can get those things from other people, you don't have to have a cofounder.

[1] https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/26/co-founders-optional/

I think one simple way we're all staring at that's right in our face. Allow HN profiles to optionally have city,state, country attached to it. Add a map. Allow people to follow each other. add some kind of messaging or emails forwarding service. add interests, skills and projects to profiles.

I agree this is a great idea. I'm sure there are other folks in my city who frequent HN but no idea how I'd find them.

As the former organizer of the silicon co-founders meetup, I can tell you that there already such a way for co-founders to meet: it's called startup school. One of the top reasons to attend is to chat with other people, hear their ideas, and maybe hit it off.

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