I did all of http://www.learnsqlserver.com/, http://www.learnitfirst.com/ and http://www.videobooks.com/ sites by myself. It took a while but so what? I'm proud of the fact that I did it and I learned so much along the way.
I'm doing all of the development on my site http://collegeacb.com but its a really simple concept (basically just a forum). One thing I have found really helpful though is having a cheerleader. Nominate someone to keep you focused (even if they don't do anything else) so that you don't give up half way through.
The problem with people looking for business partners is often that they imagine that an idea is enough to persuade someone to get involved. It rarely is. An existing friendship might be enough, but a stranger with a new idea (and nothing else) is just annoying. So, building a prototype proves you're dedicated enough to put some of your own skin in the game before asking anyone else to do so. That's a big win.
And, of course, there have been single-founder success stories. More than a few, in fact. So, if you never find a co-founder, if you can deliver a valuable product, you might still build a successful business. But it's obviously a harder row to hoe.
Lessons learned:
- Working on your own rocks because - you can do what you want, when you want to.
- Working on your own sucks because - you do what you want, when you want to.
It isn't a route for the unmotivated. You also lack a feedback loop, so you can't be sure you are producing high quality stuff as there is no local sanity check.
Absolutely! Personally, I've lost track of the number of trivial websites I've created... sites of some value, exactly three.
It can be done.