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Comment by petewarden | Hacker News Reader

I just finished the Techstars program as a sole founder, and it's _extremely_ tough to both deal with the demands of an incubator program (mentor meetings, talks, pitch practice and investors) and make progress on the product too.

I don't know enough about your situation to give you meaningful advice, but bear in mind you'll be making a big time commitment as a lone founder in an incubator.

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Well... the thing is that I am almost done with my product. I have landed about 15 contracts so by the time I go up to SF I will have clients using the software. Part of my concern is that I am so far along I am not sure if the title "co-founder" would fit anyone.

Wow, 15 contracts. What does your product do?

I spent lots of time working for ad agencies in NYC; while there I noticed that their clients kept asking them to identify and engage influencers. They constantly had a hard time with this and more often than not the client was disappointed so I developed a utility that allows them to identify and engage influencers.

By engage I mean; incorporate them into existing ad campaigns.

That's spooky - I actually have a small contract with a PR firm to do the same thing for Twitter and blogs, and I recently ran into another local startup focused on this.

My advice would be to spend your time growing the business and possibly hiring folks to handle the non-techie side if possible. There's a point at which the risk has been lowered enough that the co-founder level of reward isn't appropriate, and it sounds likely you're there if you're making decent revenue.

I'll 2nd Pete, a co-founder is almost essential, but it has to be someone that you work ridiculously well with and can count on.

I've done the solo thing twice. Depending on your goals it can work out great.

But next time, a cofounder is a must.

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