Re:Starting Up: 1 or 2, 3 is Too Much
by alanthonyc on Tuesday December 01, 2009 @09:55PM
(#971390)
I agree with your point on dilution.
The problem is that finding a co-founder with the requisite skillset, motivation and personality match is hard...it's almost like finding someone to marry. However, I know need at least one. The sheer amount of work to be done makes it a necessity, especially while I'm finishing out my current contract as a consultant.
But until I find the right person, it's going to just be me, slogging away.
This argument is mistaken. If the third person can do as much work as each of the first two, they will each have less of a proportionately more valuable company.
If the dilution argument were correct, the optimal number of founders would be 1, and that is certainly not true.
We find from experience that 2 or 3 founders is optimal. If famous companies more often have 2 founders than 3, it's probably mostly because people who want to start their own companies are rare; obviously clusters of 2 are going to be more common than clusters of 3.