Questions

My company has a great working product, 2.5 yrs of revenue and traction, however I don't have a co-founder, or any employees. In fact, I have set it up so most of my business is outsourced: product fulfillment, customer service, etc. I am currently going through the Founder Institute program in San Diego, and I am looking to raise funding in order to bring on some actual in house employees, and increase my marketing spend. I am at the point where I am looking to begin meeting with investors, however I am just wondering if it would be in my best interest to find a co-founder before I begin these meetings, or just assemble a good team of advisers and then hire key employees after funding? Look forward to hearing back. For a detailed look at Founders and Cofounders Startups.com produced a great guide: https://www.startups.com/library/expert-advice/startup-founders-and-cofounders

I'm a single founder who was raised angel and venture capital. If your business is compelling enough, you could raise angel funding. But there is little chance you can raise venture funding without a team in-place. It's a negative signal to institutional investors that you haven't been able to lock down a committed team.

That said, depending on the nature of your product and traction, it sounds like you might be past the stage of recruiting a cofounder and more into hiring a great team of employees. The differentiation being less title and more the amount of equity.

It sounds like you are selling a physical product so the question is whether you have built the capacity to scale. If not, the importance of having someone on your team who has done that at scale, even at the angel level of funding, could be helpful if not required.

Happy to do a quick call and give you more contextual advice.


Answered 10 years ago

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