Hello everyone, and welcome back,
For years, the Startup's core ideology was clear: you need a co‑founder. YC said it. Founder Institute said it. Investors repeated it so often that it became muscle memory. Even I, wearing my investor hat, instinctively flagged solo founders as “riskier.”
But something is shifting, and not slightly; it’s more of a structural change in how companies are being built.
This week I stumbled on a piece of data that grabbed my attention, even more due to the last session of the Founder Institute Portugal was about 'How to find your Co-Founder'; more than one‑third of all new startups in 2025 were founded by solo founders. Not as an exception. As a trend. As a new normal.
And suddenly, the session I ran with my fellow partners, Elisa and Fernando, at Founder Institute Portugal on “how to find your co‑founder” felt… incomplete. Not wrong but incomplete.
Because the truth is that the world that created the “mandatory co‑founder” rule is not the world we’re building today.
- AI has changed the cost of execution
- No‑code has changed the cost of prototyping
- Global talent has changed the cost of scaling
And founders themselves have changed. I've seen it myself on different programs with which I work; they’re more experienced, more technical, more resourceful, and often more capable of carrying the early weight alone than the ecosystem gives them credit for. This doesn’t mean co‑founders are obsolete. Far from it. But it does mean the old dogma “solo = red flag” is starting to feel outdated.
What we’re seeing now is a more nuanced reality:
- Some founders thrive alone and only need a team later.
- Some founders force a co‑founder relationship too early and regret it.
- Some founders are better off solo than with the wrong partner.
- And some of the most resilient companies start with one person obsessed enough to push through the first impossible miles.
Maybe the real question isn’t “Do you have a co‑founder?”
Maybe it’s “Do you have what you need to build the first version of your company?”
As an ecosystem, we need to evolve with the times. As investors, we need to update our filters. And as founder‑support organizations, we need to stop treating co‑founders as mandatory and start treating them as strategic one option among many, not a checkbox.
The rise of the solo founder is a reflection of the tools, the talent, and the times.
And if one‑third of new startups are being built this way, maybe it’s time we stop calling it an exception and start calling it what it is: a legitimate path to building great companies.
