mitchellbryson

The team is just one variable in what makes a startup successful. It happens to be the most important variable IMO. But collecting data wouldn't help here, as success may be attributed to a founders network or availability of capital or just the idea being so great e.t.c. too much to account for scientifically. And not repeatable it seems.

They bias towards multiple founders because running any business on your own is hard. You can collect this anecdote from almost every solo founder. It requires such a breadth of skills that is rarely in just one person. You don't have time to specialise in multiple non related areas. You need help.

What can you do about it? Successful solo founders tend to hire very quickly so if you're doing well and you're in a position to start hiring, do it, then apply to accelerators or whatever with your hired team. Or don't and just continue working on your business like a normal person.

Try jsonb fields (postgres only maybe?) and the jsonb accessor gem: https://github.com/madeintandem/jsonb_accessor

I use this for prototyping new apps a lot, where I'm not sure on the best design. Then I migrate to proper database columns when I'm sure of something. Feels like the best of both worlds to me.

Yes CoCs are great, but be careful how you use them. Committees wielding their CoCs to the detrement of others is shameful. They give CoCs a bad name. Maybe there should be a 2nd committee, with a CoC for committees using them maliciously, a CoCCuM if you will.

I've addressed a few of the issues you're having on my freelancers blog at https://medium.com/workroll

Here's some quick pointers...

1. Automate your lead generation. shameless plug: https://workroll.com

2. Don't estimate or provide hourly quotes. Use fixed prices based on value you're providing.

3. I literally have a list of 100 places to find clients... https://medium.com/workroll/find-5-freelance-design-developm...

4. Immerse yourself in their business, ask lots of questions and find out where their problems lie. Then charge for fixing them.

5. Contracts are useless if you can't enforce them. Learn to spot bad clients and avoid them, charge a deposit, and break work up into milestones. More here: https://medium.com/workroll/8-red-flags-to-avoid-bad-freelan...

6. Writing software is getting easier, sorry you're just wrong on this one!

P.S. hiring a sales person won't work. You are the best sales person you can find.

I monitor hundreds of job boards, social searches e.t.c.

More info here: https://medium.com/workroll/find-5-freelance-design-developm...