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Watch this great keynote from Steve Blank on what a startup really means, the transition to a large company and the power of teaching lean startup methods.

The embed code from Justin.tv is broken, so go here

Welcome to a series of posts on the subject of co-founders: why to have one, finding one, dangers or risks associated with co-founders, and then, finally, how to work with them. I am a firm believer in the value of having a co-founder, both from personal experience as well as talking to other entrepreneurs, many of whom had co-founders when growing their businesses, and some that did not. Even those who did not have co-founders later realized the value of having a partner with whom you could share the stress and success of running a business.

There are very few examples of super successful companies that have a single founder. Think about it... Microsoft (Bill Gates) comes to mind immediately, but then, not too many more. Yes, if you combed the annals of entrepreneur history, you'd likely come up with a few. Even Venture Hacks calls Mark Zuckerberg Facebook's only founder (under "The power of two" section, second paragraph), even though he arguably had quite a bit of help (remember that nasty lawsuit by three other Harvard students?).

Having a co-founder may be a crucial factor in the success of a company. But beyond that, as an entrepreneur, are there clear benefits to having a co-founder by your side? Yes. Here are a few:

A co-founder can:

• Fill in the skills gap
  You may have a well-rounded education and ample professional experience, but one person can't be an expert in everything. Everyone is missing important expertise, experience, and most importantly, management skills. What's more, as entrepreneurs, although we're willing to do any job to make our company successful, we do have interests and enjoy certain activities more than others. A co-founder can help complement your skills and fill in the skills gaps in a way you'll never be able to do on your own. Even if you think you can cover everything, why should you if you have a co-founder to lean on who can do it better than you? If they enjoy fulfilling a certain role more than you do, let them take responsibility over it. Something perhaps even more important than the skills gap is the difference in management style. If you've started and grown your own business before, you know that as time progresses, different management styles work better than others. Having a co-founder with a different skill set will likely mean he or she will also have a different management style. It's just one more weapon on your arsenal.
• Provide you with a real companion on the start-up journey
  Starting a business means a bumpy road may appear on the horizon at any point, and it can be a lot easier to handle those bumps (and have more fun) with a co-founder. Advisors, boardmembers and mentors are great, but there is nothing like being able to talk to someone that is going through the exact same process as you are, facing the same risk, the same problems, and the same potential reward: a successful venture.
• Serve as a backstop when you have an "off" day
  We all have those days when we are just not feeling it (and "it" can be any number of things with a start-up), and having a co-founder provides a backstop for those days, even for the simplest of matters. Need to go out of the office for a day or two after spending a week-long stretch glued to your computer, but need checks signed? Your co-founder can sign them. Have a big meeting scheduled when another prospect comes your way? If you have a co-founder, your company can be "present" at both meetings. Having someone you can trust, and is just as invested as you, makes what could be a huge worry just a little bit smaller.
• Balance the extremes
  Entrepreneurs just want to get things done, and they're always moving forward, but they can also face obstacles. It helps to have someone to balance the extremes we all face along the way.
• Point out blind spots
  We all have blind spots in how we manage, implement projects, and go through life. Having a co-founder gives you a peer that can point out these blind spots so you can improve. From personnel issues to how to launch a product, a co-founder will open your eyes to things you might not see.

I'm not trying to say having a co-founder is perfect all of the time. There are always bumps in the road, but the benefits outweigh the very, very small drawbacks. Up next: the risks of having a co-founder.

With lots of talk about "cloud-this" and "outsourced-that," it's becoming easier than ever for an entrepreneur to start their journey. While these tools are probably best suited to online or technology companies, many of these same things apply to any new business venture.

• "Cloud" or "shared infrastructure"
  There's no need have a datacenter with fixed costs when you can pay for what you need when you need it "in the cloud". As an added bonus, working in the cloud allows you to make use of others' expertise in running what you need. Whether it's storage from Amazon AWS, or Ruby on Rails hosting from EngineYard, infrastructure can be a variable cost with little to no capital investment.
• Remote employees, worldwide
  Offshore resources have been available for a while, but Amazon Turk and oDesk have widened the market for remote employees and provided important systemization to the process. It is now possible to give tiny tasks to a massive worldwide workforce to complete almost anything. Assign automated tasks or hire developers from anywhere in the world. Scale your team up or down, the choice is yours. Some of these changes have also started to influence the testing or QA market place, another incredible advantage for building an "ultra light start up."
• Outsourced services
  Very similar to cloud resources, but these services have been around longer and just don't have the buzz word of cloud. Despite not being new, outsourced services still provide infrastructure at lower rates, and access to features not otherwise available. From phone systems and email to accounting.
• Crowdsourced design
  Despite their abundance, entrepreneurs still tell me they have a tough time coming up with logos or brand identities at good prices. Now, thanks to sites such as 99Designs and crowdSPRING, getting great logos, corporate identity and other design services are becoming much cheaper. While you may eventually need the design skills of a well-honed (and more expensive) design professional, if you're just starting out, crowdsourced design is the way to go.
• Community
  There is a growing community talking about how to quickly and profitably launch a startup with groups like Ultra Light Startups and lean startup movement with local meetups all over the world. Take advantage of these groups, concepts and lessons learned from people that have been there and done that.

With all these great resources, it's easier (and cheaper) than ever to start a business. It can be a side venture while you work another full-time position, or if you're ready for some sacrifice, you can pursue an "ultra light" venture full-time. The best part is that, moving forward, entrepreneurs have made traditionally fixed cost become variable, which only increases your ability to be profitable very quickly.

What resources do you use, or what is missing from the entrepreneurial toolkit?

If you're in the web app startup space, no doubt you've heard the big news during TechCrunch50 that Mint was acquired for $170M. That's a very high return on a company that did a great job visualizing data from Yodlee. What is Mint? It's a great service that allows you to track all your accounts, expenses, budget and more. Many people, even ones that use the service, didn't know that Mint actually gets their data from Yodlee, which preforms all the heavy lifting and connecting with financial institutions.

What's even more interesting than the fact that Yodlee feeds all of the info into Mint.com, is the presentation that Aaron Patzer, founder of Mint.com, gave, which was subsequently released online for the Founder Institute. If you're interested in getting funded or curious about the process at all, I would strongly suggest watching the video and viewing the slides as Aaron walks through the process of funding the startup, his views around value contribution, as well as some original slides from investor presentations.

Aaron talks about and provides great insight into the typical angel-to-VC model for web apps, but why not talk about the other model where companies are bootstrapped and actually charge for their service from day one? I know, I know--it's "sexy" to say you've raised money and there certainly are many incubators, angels and others that support this perception, but we need to focus on value generation. There are way too many startups focused on social media, news aggregation, and crowd sourcing that have no real business model other than to raise money and hope to figure something out. Is that really a plan?

Getting funded can work for a few companies, and there will always be huge success stories like Twitter which didn't have a business model when they started, but there are far more failures sitting in the deadpool. I am all for innovation in any industry, and if you have a passion for social media, launch something there, but at least have some model for making money. The model may change, you may give the service away later, but put some value on it today.

Now that my mini-rant is over, watch the video and slides. It's well worth the 30 minutes of your time to gain some insight into an interesting process that might be right for your startup. What other great resources like this are there to get an education about startups online?