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Founder Reality with George Pu. Real talk from a technical founder building AI-powered businesses in the trenches. No highlight reel, no startup theater – just honest insights from someone who codes, ships, and scales.
Every week, George breaks down the messy, unfiltered decisions behind building a bootstrap software company. From saying yes to projects you don't know how to build, to navigating AI hype vs. reality, to the mental models that actually matter for technical founders.
Whether you're a developer thinking about starting a company, a founder scaling your first product, or a technical leader building AI features, this show gives you the frameworks and hard-won lessons you won't find in the startup content circus.
George Pu is a software engineer turned founder building multiple AI-powered businesses. He's bootstrapped companies, shipped products that matter, and learned the hard way what works and what's just noise.
Follow along as he builds in public and shares what's really happening behind the scenes.
New episodes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
George Pu (00:13.166)
So finding a co-founder in our industry, I think has been put to like one of the most decisions, one of the most significant decisions that you could have made as a founder. Right. And when I back in the days when I was applying for the Y Combinator in 2021, 2020, you know, finding a co-founder, right. Everyone says that Drew Huston from Dropbox was the only person who went successful without having needing a co-founder. And he's the exception, right. Everyone else need a co-founder. You need a co-founder. Airbnb need a co-founder.
Uber had a co-founder. So why wouldn't you have a co-founder? You have blind spots and YC barely backs, you know, startups that doesn't have co-founders. So I totally get it. I understand from the standpoint from where they're coming from. And it's not just YC, right? VCs as a whole prefer co-founders, prefer teams, because obviously their investment thesis are different. But as somebody who's done both, right? I started out my startup years when I had the least amount of experience with co-founders. Now I'm kind of going solo.
I still have a team so I kind of know the ins and outs and have been on both sides and I think that the AI wave that's already here is changing the way it is and I think if you're building a company you probably don't need a co-founder right and let me explain so this is the episode 2 of the known founders reality podcast where I break down the most important things that are happening as for me as a founder and also for the space as a whole and telling you what's really happening as a founder right as opposed to what's happening on Twitter or
LinkedIn or whatever people tell you how is a founder. So, this is a bit controversial as well about needing a co-founder or not. So let me break down a little bit about personal experience. So let's talk about the pro side, like why did might you be a co-founder, right? So when I started school, when I started my first startup, was my first year of school in bachelor's. I was probably 18 at a time. Barely knew anything, right? I, the medium that I use for learning was through, through books.
So I bought books on Amazon. read zero to one. read the hard thing about hard things and all that. and I, you know, I watched YouTube videos. I think Sam Allman YC had like a series about how to start a startup. Well, which is great, by the way, if you, if you really wanted to start, still great series today. and, you know, I, I really felt that I don't have the expertise and knowledge of creating a company by myself. Right. And, and, and that's true. And that is true back then. So I barely had anything. Didn't have any money.
George Pu (02:36.557)
And while it's in school, right, I'm a juvenile, of course. So it made sense for me to find co-founders, right? And in fact, if you're just starting out, if you have a domain expertise of only your space, but you don't know how to do anything else, then perhaps it's a good idea to find a co-founder. So my story is I found my best friend at a time, my best friend and I started a company and we quickly grew the team. think at one point we had like five co-founders on team for some product actually, if you go to crunch base and search some put right, probably see all the co-founders there. And we still haven't took it down.
by the way. So I've definitely been in those years, right? Where there are co-founders. And I think the main problem about having too many co-founders is like the coordination issue. So looking back, coordination was a huge thing, right? So, and obviously like we weren't profitable at a time, right? So everybody was kind of chipping, pitching in voluntarily. No one was really like getting paid from this until like later on. So his money is not the issue here. So everybody was volunteering, donating their time, their energy or efforts.
right off school to work on this like giant project that one day might break off. So everyone is excited. But however, I think the first problem that we saw is like personality differences, right? And in fact, that's actually one of the top reasons why startups fail is because you have internal problems instead of the problems of like, okay, customer told me near products or whatever, right? Or you couldn't raise fundraising. Personally, I think those are not the reasons why startups fail. Startups fail because you give up at the end, Or team gives up at the end. Team doesn't want to do it anymore. So quite frankly, that's probably the reason why
Most startups fail is because your internal team. So coordination is always an issue. Each one of us has different schedules. We put our time together. So sometimes the only time where five of us can meet is like 8 p.m., 10 p.m. We'll go to the office and then finish as at 12 and then we go home, right? Rinse and repeat. So it's a different, very different, not difficult to get everyone on the same page. And everyone also is not always on the same page, right? So you feel like, okay, I was a CEO, so obviously I know exactly what's going on.
And unfortunately, it's not the same for everybody, right? My CEO doesn't know about this project, the contract we have ongoing, we're negotiating. Like my developer doesn't exactly know the pivot that we had just announced two weeks ago, the old vision, right? So like all those silos. And if you think about it, right, if you're a team of more than two, let's say you have three people. So you have like four people, they're different communication paths, right? Person they can talk to, B, C, D.
George Pu (05:00.238)
you can talk to ACD and all that stuff. So you actually grow your communication path exponentially. Right? So if I tell everyone, here's what's happening, here's what's changing, and here's the things that we all need to do, right? If one of them is not here or two of them is not here, it actually takes so much more efforts just to get them up to speed. So that is a nightmare. And I think for startups, fast moving, if you're not all coming to the office every day together as co-founders, right? Like this really a problem. And also let's talk about the equities piece.
Breaking down equity is like one of the most time-wasting exercise that I have done early on with my co-founders. It's like, okay, how much shares should we give you? How many percent should I give myself? And it created a lot of drama, which is unnecessary, right? When you have five co-founders, obviously, you all know how that's like breaking down the shares. Probably just like easy as just 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, right? Or if you have two people, just 50, 50, right? It seems intuitive, right? However, it's not.
And as your startup grow, you quickly realize is that it doesn't really make sense for a CEO to have like 20 % in our startup is barely profitable and requires significant personal investment. And also going back to my startup days, one of my mistake was like, I didn't really see that everybody's not as invested in my startup as me, right? Time-wise, energy-wise. And that is a huge risk of adding on additional co-founders with that people I'm talking about.
So I personally just just imagine yourself as like a let's say you're 28 year old, right? You just quit your job and you're now working for yourself. You're paying your own salaries or off your pocket. You know, you have a family or some or whatever. put a lot of efforts and time and took a risk out of it, right? However, let's say you have a co-founder, it's called call him Alex, who's still working at Google, right? Who's still making 200k a year. It's just
for the example of it, right? And who contributes five hours a day or three hours a day or two hours a day or whatever you see fit. and this compounds, right? So not everyone, not every one of your co-founders on the same page as you, not everybody's taking as much risk as you. And I personally see that as a significant issue that tore, tore us team tears teams apart, right? Mine included, it was torn apart, right? At one point we have 14 people, five co-founders and everyone else was like,
George Pu (07:20.43)
was the team members we hired. It was crazy, right? And then we went through a huge restructuring our company almost went bankrupt, right? Like with that just like maybe two, three months of runway at a time back in 2023. And we almost died. We almost died, right? And really what brought us back is that we cut down on the team significantly. saw most, maybe if not all, my co-founder left in 2023. So I'm solo left. So just think about four people left me, four people left me, which is so funny.
And then I'm left with three other team members. just four of us. And from 2024, sorry, from 2023, 2025, which is this year, we've only grown our headcount probably by one. So think now we're a team of five, right? So, which is crazy because if you think about it, we have two different companies. Like how can we only do it with five? Right? So that really brings us back to the, to the topic of like, you know, should you have a co-founder or should you not have a co-founder? Right? And let me be honest, it's about right now, I don't have a co-founder now. And personally, I feel
I feel liberated by that because I don't have a co-founder. had to worry about what someone else might think about certain topics. Now I think I know the space really well. I understand exactly who my customers are. And I think my customers are people, the people who I should be working towards, you know, not my co-founders who I should just make happy all the time. It does make finances a little bit easier, but I think that shouldn't be the reason why you sure should not have a co-founder. I just think, I just think at some point, right? Like with AI, especially coming, coming to play since the end of 2022. So now it's been like,
you know, close to three years, there aren't any reason of like, why you absolutely need a co founder, right? So some people might say, George, like, you know, we need emotional support, right? A startup is hard. And I've heard that from my comment back in the days. Startup is hard. You need a co founder, right? Otherwise, you'll be so lonely, it will be so crazy. And, you know, you know, all the shenanigans about that, you know, I think, okay, first of all, it is lonely, for sure.
but you do get to choose a team. You do get to build a team. And that's what people don't realize is like, Oh, George, are you like, oh, the solo on your true startup. So like, isn't that lonely? Isn't that crazy? No, I do have a team. I do have a team of people I closely work with every single day and I enjoy working with them. Right. It's just like, I don't need a co-founder per se who takes, you know, certain percentage of the share who I lean onto for every decision. It's just, that's not the case anymore. Right. So like I, I lean onto Claude and lean onto, you know, GitHub co-pilot.
George Pu (09:45.346)
I need to chat to PT or whatever, right? So they give me a reference and I make the decision at the end. So it's honestly just like, if I have a co-founder, right? So back in the days, if I had to start over again, I might still have co-founders, but I think I'll probably get most of my answers from chat to PT. And obviously as the CEO, if you are CEO, you cannot make decisions just because chat to PT tells you.
I think that's another topic for another day, but obviously not. You cannot make decisions just because AI tells you to, you have to be the person that makes decisions because that's the best decision for your company and for your team and for yourself. Right? So, so I think personally, if you're bad at coding, right now you have clock code, have cursor, you have Windsor, if you've all the other tools that helps you code. So even though you doesn't know about how to code, which, I think back in the days is the most reasons. Like let's say I'm George, I'm like not a technical person. I'm MBA or I'm BBA, whatever.
And I just really need this brilliant engineer who is a nerd who helps me build this website and build this product out. So today just no longer the case. You can build it yourself. If you don't know how to do it, you can learn it. It's all online. And some of the tools, think like cursor and or clock code, you don't even need to understand technical stuff. Like other than Git, I guess. it just
lowers down the barriers by so much. Like you don't need a technical co-founder, at least not when you're starting out. Right. But George, like, you know, I really marketing, I'm bad at marketing. I'm a technical person. I don't know how to do marketing and how to do sales. Right. So like, can see why you might need to have a co-founder to sales, but I think that's always, always a bad idea or co-founder for marketing. Like those roles can be evolved, right? Like even let's say without AI, those roles can be developed. Like you make money, have you sell your product on internet, you make a lot of money revenue.
And then you hire somebody to do the head of marketing or head of the sales, right? It's never like backwards. like, Oh, I gave you 30%, 40%, 50 % because you're great at marketing. It's just such like, and how can you tell if somebody is really good at marketing or just screwing with you, right? You don't know. That's my point. You don't know that. So it never makes any sense to like hire somebody like grouping up as a co-founder in 2025, if you absolutely do not have a good reason to, right?
George Pu (11:59.054)
Let's think about the contra examples, right? This thing that you're building an aerospace company, you have passion, you have no idea about the space. Instead of like having a veteran to be a co-founder, right? It might be good to have them as your advisor. And I think that's something that people don't talk about. It's also about the loneliness issue people talk about. You could have advisors, you could have mentors, you can build an advisory board of people who are always available to you. Even as you're building rocket science, you're building planes, you're building rockets, you're building satellites.
Right. You're doing like hard chemistry work or deep tech or hardware, right. Or why not? think there's a huge argument to be made that you don't need a co-founder. And I think advisor mentor, like networks, mentor relations are so important that people like, don't like people like talking shit about it. But personally, I think you also need to like recruit your advisors just as recruit your team as well. You know, I think that's something that people didn't really talk about. And the best thing to do is rotate your advisors, right.
get new ones in, get old ones out that who you're not going to devise. And you'd always need to keep this nimbleness in your advisor network. It's not just like, I go to the same pals, like three pals I talk to every day, every week is that when you have new need, you talk to them differently. Ventures, same thing, team, same thing. You can hire someone. If they're great at their job, they can keep doing their job. If they're not good, they're out. But you don't really have that flexibility with co-founders, right? Let's say you're 50 50 with somebody and you two had a falling out. The company is dead, right? Because you can't do anything without your co-founder saying so.
So yeah, so those are all the reasons I think I have made that way, why you not might not need a co-founder, right? If you, if you think about some counter examples or you're strongly disagree, you can talk to me on the George Poo on Twitter, or you can email me at george at founderreality.com to tell me why I'm wrong. And we can talk about it in our future episodes together where I will actually read out your comments and we'll, we'll dissect them together. So I think the next controversial topic, I guess, like
in the co-founder space is like, George, I already have a few co-founders. My company is kind of successful already, like it's taking off, right? Or they think it's at a stage where I see it taking off more. So the reality actually is like, even if you're Airbnb, Uber and whatnot, Your co-founders in your mid to late years of your startup life cycle, actually it's kind of useless. And that's just the truth, right? It's just like most people, don't...
George Pu (14:19.502)
They don't take off and they don't scale as fast as the company does. Right. So there are many examples where I'm just not going to name names, but you can look it up yourself, right. About door dash, about Uber, about Airbnb, about many other startups where co-founders like they just take a back seat, right. Even we work, I guess it's like the example where co-founders take a back seat. They don't do contribute as much. It's not like if my company is like worth a billion tomorrow, which is like, let's say if a hundred X, right. Your co-founder is going to be a hundred X in terms of their contributions to him. And unfortunately, he's just not.
right? And to preserve the equity, mean, there's always the CEO who does like the heavy lifting, you know, for Uber is Travis Kalanick, you know, for we work was Adam Newman, you know, for like Airbnb for you know, you guys want to the names, right? So there's always somebody who does the heavy lifting. And I think I think just think about that as well, like the scale of it, right? Because it's really hard to scale. So I hate to suggest it. But if you think if you don't see yourself working with a co-finance, if they're not as passionate,
at your product or at your company as much as you and you don't see that you see the disconnect every day. It might be a good idea to consider buying them out. Right. And I think there's nothing there's nothing bad about it. Honestly, like I've done that before as well. Right. We're just like, this is very bitter, right? If you could bring a friend as a co-founder, it's horrible, right? When it goes right, it's horrible. And so you break your friendship a lot of times. So but still, I think if you're a founder, if you really believe in the thing that you do, you no longer see your co-founder being your best wingman to take you to the next level.
the best thing might just be to buy them out to help them find an exit. And I think that's hard. Or you have to evaluate yourself if they're still adding value. If the relationship is strained, you're probably gonna buy them out, right? Or, you know, just keep them as it is, but like their rules will probably not evolve as much as you if you're in, you know, the huge scaling role. And you also need to be very nimble about making decisions, right? If like, please don't get consensus, right? I used to ask my five, four co-founders plus me five.
do you guys all agree to this? And I will not do anything until all five of us do this stupid decision, whatever. And I'll wait until everybody agrees and I'll go ahead and say, okay, let's do it. All right. That's the stupidest thing ever. Like I look back at, I want to, I want to punch myself back in the face. Right? Obviously not. So you need to make really clear decision making goals. And sometimes that means you have to be the quote unquote bad person jerk to make that decision.
George Pu (16:43.853)
fast, fast, fast, fast. And you are always also the person takes responsibilities for it. I think that's fine. You know, so that's another thing like make this as fast, be very clear with the co founders that you are the one who's going to make decisions if things evolve very quickly, right? You also need to communicate well with them, obviously, but make this as fast. And lastly, I think performance refuse for your co funders, which is another controversial topic. Even for co funders, I think it is needed.
when you're at some sort of scale, I think you need to look at them, down together and see about the things that they have done. And this is very, very, very, very counterintuitive, right? Most people don't do that. But if you do that, obviously it's good for you, right? Because you're actually taking the time and you're trying to make better for your company. You need to sit down with the co-founders because even for me, like I've had co-founders who just sit on the board and sit in the company, doesn't do much, right? At the end. And because of their seniority, senior already.
the company, most people are there not to say anything about it. And that's her dream, right? And that's her team seeing, you know, this co founder doesn't do much a day, right? And she's still getting paid, he still has all the shares. Who am I working for? Like, why am I working so hard, right? So you always have these problems. So having performance reviews, however frequently you like that fits your situation, do it, you know, but do it even for co founders. So you know, look, if you have an amazing co founder who shares their vision, right, who empowers your skills,
right? Who you think you cannot live without putting a company for sure, for sure, keep them. But if you're struggling to find the right balance, if you're questioning yourself, why the heck am I working this person? Or these people's right? Or you're just like doing it because it's cool. You know, it's like what a company said it might be C said, I might lead investors said it. the internet said it right? If that's the reason why you make the decision, I think you must slow down. I think about it if it doesn't make sense anymore. And maybe it doesn't. And maybe the truth is you don't need one. Right?
In 2025, maybe you don't need one. And that's kind of the reality. And in 2025, obviously with AI taking care of most of the work, your biggest advantage as a founder is the speed of execution. And that's so, so, true. And nothing kills speed like having to talk to so many people just to get approvals. Right? So that's most terrible thing. Don't convince anyone else why this is the way to go. Right? Eliminate the decision barrier. Go do it.
George Pu (19:07.565)
go do it, go do it, go do it, do it with AI. And sometimes the best co founder has no co founder. Right. So thank you for listening to this episode. As always, this is George and I'm hosting the founders reality podcast where every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I break down what's happening with my startup and what's happening to start a world as general, right. And give you the insights, the direct insights and no one else gives you.
If you like to discuss more, we have any suggestions on email me at george at founderreality.com or you can find me on Twitter with the handle the george poo. And again, we do it every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. You can listen to this podcast wherever you are. So until next time, gents.
Key Takeaways
Co-founders create coordination overhead that can kill startups
AI tools eliminate most traditional reasons for needing co-founders
Speed of execution is your biggest advantage in 2025
Equal equity rarely reflects equal contribution over time
Decision-making by consensus is startup suicide
Consider advisors instead of co-founders for domain expertise
If you have co-founders, evaluate honestly and act decisively
The Co-founder Obsession is Wrong
Everyone says you need a co-founder. Y Combinator barely backs solo founders. VCs prefer teams. Drew Houston from Dropbox is supposedly the 'exception' - everyone else needs co-founders, right?
I've been on both sides. Started my first startup at 18 with five co-founders. Now I'm running two companies solo with a lean team of five people total.
The reality: In 2025, you probably don't need a co-founder. And AI is changing everything.
My Co-founder Journey: From 5 to 0
When I started my first company as an 18-year-old student, I barely knew anything. I read 'Zero to One', watched Sam Altman's startup series, and felt like I needed co-founders to fill my knowledge gaps. That made sense then.
At our peak, we had five co-founders and 14 total team members.
We were applying to Y Combinator, following all the conventional wisdom about needing a team.
Then reality hit.
By 2023, we almost went bankrupt. We had maybe 2-3 months of runway left. Four of my co-founders left. All of them. I was left with three team members.
From 2023 to 2025, we've only grown our headcount by one person. Five people total, running two companies. Think about that.
Why Co-founders Actually Hurt You
1. Coordination Nightmare
Communication paths grow exponentially. With five co-founders, you have multiple communication channels. Getting everyone on the same page becomes impossible.
The only time all five of us could meet was 8-10 PM. We'd work until midnight, then rinse and repeat. If one person wasn't there, it took massive effort to get them up to speed.
why having co-founders can actually hurt your business
why having co-founders can actually hurt your business
2. Equity Drama
Breaking down equity is one of the most time-wasting exercises I've ever done. How much should each person get? 20/20/20/20/20? It seems simple, but it's not.
As your startup grows, you realize it doesn't make sense for a CEO who's personally invested everything to have the same equity as someone contributing part-time.
3. Unequal Risk and Investment
Not everyone takes the same risk. Imagine you're 28, quit your job, paying your own salary out of pocket, putting everything on the line.
Your co-founder Alex is still working at Google making $200K, contributing 2-3 hours per day. This compounds over time and tears teams apart.
4. Decision-Making Paralysis
I used to ask all five co-founders to agree before making any decision. I would wait until everyone agreed before moving forward. Looking back, I want to punch myself in the face.
Nothing kills speed like having to get approvals from multiple people.
Why AI Changes Everything
You Don't Need a Technical Co-founder Anymore
Back in the day, if you weren't technical, you needed a brilliant engineer co-founder to build your product.
Today, that's no longer the case. You have:
Cursor and Claude for coding
GitHub Copilot
Windsurf and other AI tools
Even if you don't understand technical concepts beyond Git, these tools lower the barrier dramatically. You can build it yourself.
AI is making the case of needing a co-founder weaker
AI is making the case of needing a co-founder weaker
You Don't Need a Marketing Co-founder
"But George, I'm technical and bad at marketing/sales. I need a co-founder for that."
This is always a bad idea. Those roles can be hired. Make money from your product first, then hire a head of marketing or head of sales.
How can you tell if someone is actually good at marketing or just screwing with you? You don't know. Never give away 30-50% equity for unproven marketing skills.
AI as Your Co-founder
I lean on Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI tools for advice and references. Then I make the final decision.
You can't make decisions just because AI tells you to, but AI can replace much of what co-founders traditionally provided: different perspectives, domain expertise, and analytical thinking.
When You Might Actually Need a Co-founder
Deep domain expertise in specialized fields. If you're building an aerospace company, rockets, satellites, or hard chemistry/deep tech, you might need someone with that specific background.
But consider making them an advisor first, not a co-founder.
What to Do If You Already Have Co-founders
1. Evaluate Honestly
Are they as passionate about your product as you are? Do you see them scaling with the company? Most co-founders don't scale as fast as the company grows.
Look at DoorDash, Uber, Airbnb - there's usually one person doing the heavy lifting while co-founders take a back seat.
2. Consider Buying Them Out
If you don't see your co-founder as your best wingman to the next level, it might be time for an exit. This is bitter, especially if they're friends, but sometimes necessary.
Evaluate if they're still adding value. If the relationship is strained, buying them out might be the best option.
3. Clear Decision-Making Authority
Don't seek consensus on everything. Make it clear that you'll make fast decisions when things evolve quickly.
You need to be the "bad person" who makes decisions fast and takes responsibility for them.
4. Performance Reviews for Co-founders
Yes, even co-founders need performance reviews. This is counterintuitive, but necessary at scale.
If team members see a co-founder not contributing much while still getting paid and holding equity, it destroys morale. Sit down regularly and assess what they've accomplished.
The Reality: Speed is Everything
In 2025, your biggest advantage as a founder is speed of execution. AI handles most operational work. Your competitive edge is how fast you can move.
Nothing kills speed like having to convince multiple people before taking action. Sometimes the best co-founder is no co-founder.
What I Learned
Going from 5 co-founders to 0 wasn't easy, but it was liberating. I don't have to worry about what someone else thinks about every decision. I know my space, understand my customers, and can focus on serving them instead of managing co-founder relationships.
I still have a team. I work closely with people every day and enjoy it. I just don't need co-founders who take significant equity and slow down decision-making.
If you're starting out, think carefully about whether you actually need a co-founder or if you're just following conventional wisdom that no longer applies.
Have strong agreements/disagreements? Email me at george@founderreality.com or find me on Twitter @TheGeorgePu. I'll read your comments in future episodes.
New episodes every Monday, Wednesday & Friday at founderreality.com