✍️ Essay
✓ Link checked
Free
Intermediate
An honest investor-side essay that names the real objection and tells you how to kill it. It quotes a16z's Andrew Chen: recruiting one smart person is step one in validating you are serious, so the fix is to prove you recruit, not to find a co-founder. Armstrong's line to internalize: the best solo founders are recruiting machines who pull in early hires and a bench early.
The case for (and against) founding solo
From a16z Speedrun (Substack) by Evan Armstrong (guest post, a16z speedrun) 15 min read
- Solo founding is now a defensible default for strong operators (63% of Stripe Atlas C-corps in Q2 2026), so lead with why solo works for you, not an apology.
- The genuine risk investors price is the missing foil, someone to push back, so show advisors and early hires who fill that role visibly in your materials.
- Neutralize the bias by being a visible recruiter, not a lone wolf: don't confuse founding solo with working alone.
