There are two reasons founders resist going out and recruiting users individually. One is a combination of shyness and laziness. They’d rather sit at home writing code than go out and talk to a bunch of strangers and probably be rejected by most of them. But for a startup to succeed, at least one founder (usually the CEO) will have to spend a lot of time on sales and marketing.
I think this is part of what makes being a part-time startup CEO near impossible. Probably one of the reasons I’ll never fill that role: the time commitments are just too great for the lifestyle I want to live. I can’t have divided attentions, side projects outside my 40 hour week, a thriving social life, a healthy family life, and be the CEO of a startup. It requires a lot of human face-to-face time doing things.
Oh well. C’est la vie.
This is a pretty great article. I had to skim towards the end because my eyes were hurting, but I need to go back and re-read it when I’m less tired.