Here's a list that Robert Warren (rswarren.com) and I brainstormed to come up with to compare internet/tech companies and if they were starte by: "1 Founder", "2 Founders", & "3 or More Founders"
To keep the list from becoming too big or unmeaningful, we restricted it to very famous internet, computer, and technology companies. I'm assuming that this is the type of company that most of us might be interested in starting anyway.
I was really suprised to see how many internet start up companies have only 1 founder (Amazon, eBay, Craig's List, etc.) I know I don't like trying huge projects alone so maybe it depends most on the personality of the developer of whether they like "going it alone" or with a partnership.
"1 Founder"
1) IBM: Thomas Watson
2) NEC: Kunihiko Iwadare
3) Coleco: Founded by one guy in 1932.
4) Nintendo: Founded by one guy in 1889.
5) Yamaha: Founded by one guy in 1897.
6) EDS (Electronic Data Systems): Ross Perot) in 1962.
7) Commodore Computers Founded by one guy in 1954.
8) America Online: Founded by one guy in 1983.
9) 3Com: Founded by one guy in 1979.
10) Adobe: Founded by one guy in 1982.
11) Seagate: Founded by one guy in 1979.
12) Borland: Founded by one guy in 1983.
13) GoDaddy.com: Founded by Robert Parsons 1997
14) Amazon.com: Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1995
15) Ebay.com: Founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995
16) Craigs List: Craig Newmark in 1995.
17) AMD: Founded by Jerry Sanders
18) Toshiba: Founded by Hisashige Tanaka in 1875
19) Dell: Founded by Michael Dell (from his dorm room), 1984
20) Bell Telephone Co.: Founded by Bell's father in law in 1878
21) Symantec: Founded by Gary Hendrix in 1984
22) Philips Electronics: Founded by Gerard Philips in 1891
23) Earthlink: Founded by Sky Dayton in 1994
23) Hitachi: Founded by Namihei Odaira in 1910
24) Westinghouse Electric Co. Founded by George Westinghouse in 1886
25) Matsu****a: Founded by Konosuke Matsu****a in 1918
"2 Founders"
1) YouTube.com: Chad Hurley and Steve Chen
2) Microsoft: Bill Gates and Paul Allen
3) Google.com: Larry Page and Sergey Brin
4) Yahoo.com: David Filo and Jerry Yang
5) Apple Computers: Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs
6) Cisco Systems: Sandy Lerner and Leonard Bosack
7) Hewlett-Packard: Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard
8) Sony: Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita
9) Atari: A two man startup
10) Netscape: Founded by two men in 1994.
11) Intel: Founded by Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore in 1968
12) Silicon Graphics was founded by two in 1982.
13) DEC: Founded by two men in 1957.
14) Veritas: Founded by two Intel alum in 1983.
"3 or More Founders"
1) Compaq: Founded by three guys in 1982.
2) Texas Instruments: Founded by four guys in 1941
3) National Semiconductor: Founded by eight guys in 1959.
4) Oracle: Founded by three guys in 1977.
5) Juniper Networks: Founded by three guys in 1996
6) Palm Computing: Founded by three guys in 1992
Summary:
"1 Founders" = 25
"2 Founders" = 14
"3 or More Founders" = 6
DeluxeNames
AdminAdministrator
