I’m 3 years into this startup and when starting out I couldn’t find any cofounders that were able to dedicate the time needed so I had to go solo.
I’ve recently started selling units at a volume that is just too much for one person to handle while developing the next version, which is planned to launch beginning of next year. (This version fixes all current customer issues.)
Now, what do I do? I’m bootstrapped so far.
Do I get investor money and then hire?
I probably need more offloading than an employee can provide.
Do I try to get co-founders now? I guess it’s easier to persuade them now but it’s also 3 years in so how much stock to grant them?
Any tips is appreciated!
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The priority is getting the co-founders, though it might be helpful to take a few investor meetings just to gauge the market appetite.
If it were me, I’d be prepared to give two co-founders, 20-25% of the business each. Why? 1) They’ll presumably be working for free or pennies on the dollar, and 2) more importantly, you’re picking people you believe will go the distance with you. That could be another 7-10 years of their life they’re putting towards your vision. You want them sufficiently incentivized to do their best work. If you do pursue funding, at least one of your investors is going to care about this to avoid future conflict down the road.
Also, if you do pursue funding, don’t claim product market fit yet. It will invite a lot of scrutiny. Instead say “we have some early customer validation,” and then breakdown what that looks like:
- who your customers are…
- who is your target persona and what problem are you solving for them
- how they’re finding you…
- how are you marketing and selling the product
- what they love about the product…
- why do they sign up and who do they tell about it
- what they hate about the product…
- why are they churning
After that, you have to make a case that there’s a clear path to $1M in annual revenue and a visible path to $100M. Good luck!
- who your customers are…