Paul Graham's Essential Startup Wisdom | Generated by AI
Paul Graham (founder of Y Combinator) has written dozens of essays that have shaped how almost every modern startup founder thinks. Here are the most important, enduring pieces of wisdom he keeps repeating (with the original essays where he first or best said them):
-
Make something people want
The #1 reason startups fail is “no one wanted the product.” Everything else is solvable if users love what you build.
(“How to Get Startup Ideas,” “Do Things That Don’t Scale”) -
Startups = Growth
A startup is a company designed to grow fast. If you’re not optimizing for week-over-week growth (especially in the early days), you’re not running a startup—you’re running a small business.
(“Startup = Growth”) -
Do things that don’t scale (early on)
Recruit your first users manually, one by one. Write custom code. Do manual work that would be embarrassing at scale. That’s how you discover what people actually want.
(“Do Things That Don’t Scale” – probably his most-quoted essay) -
Have a “start-up of one” mindset first
Launch fast with a tiny team (ideally 2–3 founders who know each other well and can build the whole initial product themselves). Big teams kill speed and create politics.
(“The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups,” “How to Start a Startup”) -
Focus obsessively on the product and users
Great founders talk to users constantly, ship constantly, and iterate. Most other activities (fancy offices, PR, hiring tons of people early) are dangerous distractions.
(“Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule,” “Schlep Blindness”) -
Great ideas often feel embarrassingly small or trivial at first
The best startup ideas look like toys or “some little thing” to most people (Google = another search engine, Airbnb = air mattresses, Facebook = college hot-or-not). If it seems like a big, obvious idea, someone else has already done it.
(“How to Get Startup Ideas”) -
Founders > Idea
YC would rather fund great founders with a bad-sounding idea than mediocre founders with a good-sounding idea, because great founders will pivot until they find product-market fit.
(Repeated in hundreds of YC application decisions) -
Be relentlessly resourceful
PG loves the word “resourceful.” Great founders figure out how to get what they need no matter what. They don’t accept “no” easily.
(Stories about Airbnb selling cereal boxes, etc.) -
Keep burn low and runway long
Raise only as much money as you need to reach the next meaningful milestone. The more money you raise, the more you’ll waste and the higher the bar for success becomes.
(“How to Raise Money,” “The Fatal Pinch”) -
Don’t optimize for valuation, optimize for the right investors and control
A slightly lower valuation from great investors who will help you is better than a sky-high valuation from people who will screw you later.
(“How to Raise Money”) -
The power law rules everything
Startup returns follow a power-law distribution: most investments go to zero, one or two go 100–1000×. So both founders and investors have to swing for the fence.
(“Black Swan Farming”) -
Work like a startup, not like a big company
Move fast, ship broken stuff, talk to users, ignore “best practices” that slow you down. Big-company habits (process, committees, long planning cycles) are poison in the early days.
Bonus one-liner PG loves:
“The best way to come up with a good startup idea is to live in the future and build what seems like a toy today.”
If you only read three PG essays in your life, read these:
- How to Get Startup Ideas
- Do Things That Don’t Scale
- Startup = Growth
They contain 80% of the wisdom above and will change how you think about building companies.
Original essays (all free):
How to Get Startup Ideas
Do Things That Don’t Scale
Startup = Growth
Black Swan Farming
Full essay list