Is There Such Thing As A One Person Startup ?

[Jimmy]

I was curious if anyone had an opinion on this ?
I consider myself a one person startup. About a year ago, while waiting for carry out at the local BoneFish here in Frederick, it struck me, my idea. Some say the best services are the ones you need yourself, and thats exactly what my idea was.

So I started keeping notes in my moleskin, kind of random thoughts about what I wanted and needed in this new service. After a bit of that, I started to put something a little more formal down. On three powerpoint files I had :
1. FrontEnd Design Concept
2. Backend Design Concept
3. Business Model
It was all very simple and kind of crystallized my thoughts and plans.
I am a tech person, but I am no developer, more of a reverse engineering hacker .... So now what was I to do ? I had no team, developers, marketers, or otherwise. Just me.
So I put my plan on elance and gathered bids for development of my idea.
Long story short, I spent @2400 to get my alpha site up and running, another $500/year for my dedicated virtual server and I am now theoretically a viable web service provider.
I have the same development team working on the second phase of the site to get it to where I will launch it, officially. This has all been self funded.
Now I do have the issue of marketing and getting the word out there. But with great events like the Web Innovators Group in Boston and others here in the area, I can feasibly show and gather momentum for my product.

So I wonder if I am in a fantasy land, or with all the tools available to us in this "Flat World" as Thomas Friedman wrote about, do I have a chance ?

I would love to hear everyones thoughts on this.

[Raouf]

Hi Jimmy,
Great post! My answer to you is NO, here is why:
I think most entrepreneurs face the same question at one point or another. I too developed my startup SOLO using my own funds, outsourcing and just lots of work. I came to realize that was the easy part. The SOLO approach is great for building skills and character to a point... After that, i think it hurts the business. Going solo will slow down your company considerably, by the time you get things together, it maybe too late.

It maybe a good detach yourself from the business and look to what is best to it. Also, you cant be the best at everything, but you can hire the best :)

I think the next question you will encounter is: HOW/WHERE DO I Hire management Executives?

Thats another post in itself.

My 2 cents,

G.Luck,

Raouf