Geoff Lewis:

There have always been successful single founder companies, but they were true outliers. That will change: Today, it is more possible than ever before for one person to effectively lead both building and selling during a consumer internet startup’s early growth phase. I’m seeing it done first hand by some of my single-founder friends, each of whom I believe will be wildly successful.

I strongly agree. My favorite point is when he compares finding the perfect co-founder to finding the perfect life mate.

Yet the odds of finding a co-founder who’s a true partner – in every sense of the word – are about the same as your odds of finding that perfect spouse… Did I mention 50% of marriages end in divorce?

So true.

An interesting viewpoint on a topic I’ve strongly thought about in the past.

College works on the factory model, and is in many ways not suited to training entrepreneurs. You put in a student and out comes a scholar.

Entrepreneurship works on the apprenticeship model. The best way to learn how to be an entrepreneur is to start a company, and seek the advice of a successful entrepreneur in the area in which you are interested. Or work at a startup for a few years to learn the ropes.

Great question that I’ve often tried answering. Keith Rabois, EVP of strategy and business development at Slide, takes a stab at finding an answer.

Silicon Alley Insider:

According to an SEC filing, this compensation includes a salary of $969,872, stock awards worth $12,974,722, an option award worth $29,169,334, a non-equity bonus of $1,500,000, and “other” compensation worth $2,615,345.

Some others made bank, too:

CFO Timothy R. Morse – $6,170,193
Ex-CFO Blake Jorgensen – $2,102,994
EVP Hilary Schneider – $5,261,775
Departing CTO Aristotle Balogh – $5,584,251
Top lawyer Michael J. Callahan – $3,925,04

I want to know how this is compares with other technology company. Would love to know how much Marissa Mayer or Jonny Ive make in comparison.

Thankfully, the craze to bring in outside CEOs to take over young technology companies has slowly started decreasing in Silicon Valley.

Ben Horowitz outlines the reasons why he personally will prefer that the founder is also the CEO, namely:

Innovations are product cycles. Professional CEOs are effective at maximizing, but not finding, product cycles. Conversely, founding CEOs are excellent at finding, but not maximizing, product cycles. Our experience shows—and the data supports—that teaching a founding CEO how to maximize the product cycle is easier than teaching the professional CEO how to find the new product cycle.

There are exceptions, notably Eric Schmidt & Google. The reason behind why that works, according to Horowitz, is that the Google trio truly embrace shared leadership, something that almost no one can pull off.

Nice image showcasing the similarities between starting a successful technology startup and starting a successful rock band.