Two creators are not always better than one

Re:Two creators are not always better than one by _hyn3 on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @02:48PM (#18924332)

I agree that this is a thing with VC's, but the claimed logic behind it is not credible.

If you are able to recruit founders to work with each other, you didn't prove anything that couldn't be just as easily proven by recruiting a VC to invest in you.

And if it's not sales/hype that we're trying to prove, but instead a technical review by a potential co-founder, then that's what technical due diligence is for.

To me, a much better test is whether or not they've managed to get a believable proof of concept or even actual traction all by themselves, without any help and without even a co-founder.

That is a much better proof point. (leaving out of the discussion other salient points like market size, growth rate, etc)

Being able to attract another idiot who might not know anything at all about the problem domain, or gets excited about it for a few weeks or months, or "joins" five different startups in six months in the hopes that one of them gets funded.. this proves nothing of value.

Convincing a VC to fund you at reasonable terms? Much harder than finding a pliant co-founder if you have even mediocre skills at marketing/sales.

The real reasons VC's want multiple founders aren't really talked about, because they're not flattering to VC's: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18924243

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Re:Two creators are not always better than one by pmichaud on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @05:30PM (#18926154)

> If you are able to recruit founders to work with each other, you didn't prove anything that couldn't be just as easily proven by recruiting a VC to invest in you.

Eh, I think this is spurious. The specific post you're replying to is about a signal that seed funders can use to predict if founders have what it takes.

Seed funders can't really use the signal of "did they get VC money?"

Also, technical proof of concept is definitely a positive signal, but is not at all sufficient to make a reasonable investment bet.

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Re:Two creators are not always better than one by _hyn3 on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @10:39PM (#18928160)

> Eh, I think this is spurious. The specific post you're replying to is about a signal that seed funders can use to predict if founders have what it takes. Seed funders can't really use the signal of "did they get VC money?"

That's a fair point, but my point was really: if they can convince you as an investor to actually put in money, then they certainly have sales skills that outclass those of acquiring some random co-founder. Admittedly, maybe they don't have the technical skills, or perhaps you as an investor lacks the specific skills to evaluate those in the way that a potential co-founder might be able to, but (as I mentioned) that's what technical due diligence is for anyway.

> Also, technical proof of concept is definitely a positive signal, but is not at all sufficient to make a reasonable investment bet.

I don't see what you are saying. Are you saying that getting a co-founder is more sufficient than a technical proof of concept to make a reasonable investment bet? I wasn't arguing that one should make an entire investment based solely on one factor (the product itself).

My point is simply that: being able to sell a co-founder on the idea or product seems to be an easier lift than selling an investor to invest real money in the idea or product, irrespective of other factors.

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Re:Two creators are not always better than one by njarboe on Thursday January 17, 2019 @01:16PM (#18933051)

My idea was more that one cofounder probably had an original idea, but then got another person to work with them on it. In the best case both people are working on the project in large part because they want to work with the other person. The project the two work on probably evolves enough between the two people that at the point they get to talking to an Angel, they can both claim full half credit and feel like equals in the endeavor. People who can do this are much more likely to be able to grow a business quickly like Y-Combinator tries to do.

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