It's interesting to me that you say that.
Even two decades ago, the idea of a "solopreneur" was fantastical. You needed people to run a business.
Today, you have bloggers, information entrepreneurs and affiliate marketers making enough money to rival small businesses. And they often run without any employees.
Similarly, you have the idea of the solo artist today who writes his own songs, makes his own music, and even shoots his own music videos, then releases them on his own channel and does his own marketing (Todd Terje comes to mind).
This is possible because of the tools made available to solo artists today, which are, surprisingly, similar to the tools used by solopreneurs (social media marketing tools, access to freelancers, etc.)
Another similarity: Conflicts between founders. I was not surprised to learn that there was tension in the band. However, The Ramones were extreme with Johnny and Joey barely talking for many years. I find it remarkable that they were able to keep it together as long as they did (The Beatles, if the stories about Lennon/McCartney are true, did not last half as long).
About 15 years ago Michael Azzerad wrote a great book called Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991. It has some very good interviews with the founding members of various bands who came after The Ramones, covering the bands' formation, songwriting/recording approaches, success, and failure. The stories of Minor Threat/Fugazi/Dischord are particularly interesting. Reading it I was reminded a lot of Founders at Work.
This interview from AV Club (1) is helpful to understanding the parallels. A sample:
AVC: What is the connective tissue that binds all of these bands together?
MA: The epigram for Our Band Could Be Your Life comes from William Blake: “I must create my own system, lest I be enslaved by another man’s.” All of the bands in the book were creating their own system. That’s one thing. The other is that they were part of a close-knit, interconnected, interdependent community. You’ll notice how other bands in the book pop up in every chapter, frequently. That’s no coincidence—it really was that tightly knit. People shared everything: information, equipment, their floors, whatever. There was strength in unity.
1. http://www.avclub.com/article/revisiting-book-immortalized-8...