The traditional requirement for co-founders is shifting — solo founders can now multiply their output 400x with AI coding tools, making individual ambition more viable than ever.
Garry explains that while co-founders have historically been essential (referencing Derek Sivers' 'one person dancing is a crazy person' talk), vibe coding and agentic tools now let a single founder be a multiple of themselves. ✦ AI generated
Garry Tan · a16z Podcast · 2026-08-12 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 14:07
“Talk about the historical upside sort of surprises of like founder types, business types, and the downside surprises. What have you learned through YC?”
for the longest time we really really believed that you needed co-founders and I think that everything else being equal, having co-founders is net really really good. Um I think some of this is like the beginning of a cult. Like you know, a cult where there's only one person and that person can't convince anyone else to join them is like you know, worse than a cult. It's just like a crazy person actually. Um I think this is like an old Derek Sivers TED Talk, right? Where it's like uh yeah, one person dancing in a field is a crazy person. But um you know, it's really the second person who like gets up and joins that person like then you just what you find is you know, suddenly 10 people are all dancing. Then it's a party. Yeah, that's literally the TED Talk. Love it. And um I think there's something to that, but you know, I think what's happening right now with vibe coding and agentic coding um literally any given person could be 400 of that person like from two years like even like nine months ago um you can be a multiple of yourself.
verbatim transcript · starts at 14:07
13:49no one like >> The day your co-founder loses hope and you're not allowed to. >> Right. >> That's a tough day, you know? >> Yeah. >> Talk about the historical upside sort of surprises of like founder types, business types, and the downside surprises. What have you learned through YC? >> I mean, what's we're sort of in the middle of a big transformation now, I think. >> Okay.
14:07>> Um for the longest time we really really believed that you needed co-founders and I think that everything else being equal, having co-founders is net really really good. >> Totally. >> Um I think some of this is like the beginning of a cult. >> Yeah. >> Like you know, a cult where there's only one person and that person can't convince anyone else to join them is like you know, worse than a cult. It's
14:29just like a crazy person actually. >> Right, right, right. >> Um I think this is like an old Derek Sivers TED Talk, right? Where it's like uh yeah, one person dancing in a field is a crazy person. >> Yes. >> But um you know, it's really the second person >> [laughter] >> who like gets up >> That's right. >> and joins that person like then you just
14:48what you find is you know, suddenly 10 people are all dancing. Then it's a party. Yeah, that's literally the TED Talk. >> Love it. >> And um I think there's something to that, but you know, I think what's happening right now with vibe coding and agentic coding >> Yeah. >> um literally any given person could be 400 of that person like from two years like even like nine months ago
15:13um you can be a multiple of yourself. >> It's amazing. >> yeah, and so >> think founders are more ambitious than they've ever been? >> They should be. >> Yes. >> Um if anything, like that's the number one thing that people should do is realize that like don't chase your success or my success. Like that was, you know, when we were coming up. Like >> right. >> the game done changed.
15:35>> [laughter] >> You know, like you actually you can't just do a SaaS thing. Like I you know, I was just doing an analysis on my pure SaaS and I was like, oh shoot, like you know, a pure like per seat SaaS thing, like not totally clear it will exist in another 5 or 10 years. Like it's perfectly fine as a wedge, but if you're doing that now in 2026, like you better