I have always been curious as to how many people does it take to “found” a successful company.So I decide to dig up some pretty shallow info on big name companies and their founders, and find the average number of founders among those companies.The list simply contains just companies which are started by individuals, not a subsidy of another corporation (e.g. Alta Vista). Although they could eventually be acquired by other companies.

Here is the list in no particular order, and the list is quite random.

Average 2.09

So it looks like chance of success is definitely better with a team of two. I think two is a good number — it’s easy to collaborate and get things done. A single phone call would be sufficient to get both stakeholders in touch with each other. In addition, two-person team would not take up too much space as well, which makes either a single-car or two-car garage an ideal place to setup office, conference room, server racks, and so on. That’s what I call flexibility.