Raising money
Can you start a project without a cofounder?
Yes, and many projects start that way. Keep the first version small enough to build on your own, pay for the skills you lack one job at a time, and let the people who want it fund it before it exists. A cofounder can join later, once you know which gap they'd fill.
What does going solo cost you?
Every decision is yours, and so is every bad week. Nobody checks your thinking before you act on it, and the skills you don't have stay missing until you find them somewhere else.
What you keep is real too. You move at your own pace, the whole company stays yours, and there's no partner to fall out with. Plenty of good projects need exactly that.
How do you fill the gaps without a partner?
One job at a time. Most gaps need a few weeks of someone's work, not a partner for years:
- A freelancer for a fixed job: the logo, the first batch, the website.
- An adviser for an hour, when a decision goes past what you know.
- A community of people making similar things, to check your thinking.
- A smaller first version, so it needs fewer skills to begin with.
Pay for each job once, and write down what you agreed. A share of the company is the most expensive way to pay for a logo.
How can backers help a solo creator?
They fund the first version before it exists. A reward campaign works like taking orders ahead of time: people pay now for something you'll make, and you can claim the money once your goal is met. That's how a campaign works on CoFunders, and how to fund a side project shows how to keep the first version small.
Backers bring more than money. Their questions show what people really want, and each of them can tell a friend. You can also pay a share reward of up to 18.5% of each pledge to whoever brings a backer through their link.
It's all or nothing, so set the goal at what the first version costs and no higher. The goal planner works it out with the fees included.
What happens to your backers if the goal is missed?
If the goal isn't met by the deadline, you take your pledge back from escrow with one tap, and nobody has to approve it. What comes back is the amount held for you: your pledge minus the fees taken when you backed (the platform fee, the flat fee, any tip and any share reward the campaign pays).
When is it time to bring someone in?
When a gap blocks the next step and paying for it one job at a time no longer works. The work may have grown past what one person can do, or the missing skill may be the heart of the product itself.
By then you have something to show: backers who paid, a first version and what people told you about it. That's what a good cofounder asks to see, and it puts you in a far better place to find one.
Your next step
Write down the gaps in your first version, and which ones money can fill. Then read what to show a future cofounder, and put the first version's cost into the goal planner.