According to researchers, a startup founded by one individual is more than twice as successful as one with two founders. The main reason is obviously interpersonal.
Successful companies with two founders, there are many – just think of the Google founder Larry Page and Serge Brin, Bill Gates and Paul Allen of Microsoft or the Apple double Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. For solo founders, most of them immediately catch the eye of Amazon boss Jeff Bezos. But which is better? Start alone or get a partner on board? A US study gives a clear answer.
Startup Foundation: Individual founders are twice as successful as two-person teams
According to the researchers Jason Greenberg and Ethan R. Mollick, the startups of individual founders have established a significantly longer life expectancy than those of two-person teams. In fact, one should assume that two founders also have twice the energy, a network twice as large and access to larger financial sources. All of this seems to be taking a back seat, especially among start-up companies.
The biggest contributor to potential startup success, according to the study, is Interpersonal. Where two or more heads are involved in making decisions and are exposed to potential crisis situations and pressures, tensions naturally arise. Even if the two-person teams are friends. The tensions mean that a lot of energy needs to be invested in conflict resolution rather than in product development.
Nevertheless, teams of start-up founders would rather be in the limelight as solo founders, as the study authors admit. On the one hand, because with product presentations, several founders with their different skills would make more impression. In addition, previous studies have found that solo founders are less successful. And hardly anyone has shaken these results, as it says in a report by MIT Sloan.
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Also published on Medium.