Lessons from PG aka Paul Graham

T. Salami
T. Salami
Sep 7, 2018 · 2 min read

I am one of the many that was accepted to Y Combinator’s online Startup School. Here are lessons from A Conversation with Paul Graham moderated by Geoff Ralston.


Startups are counterintuitive.

Don’t follow your gut.

Do things that don’t scale.

Do things manually. For example in the early days of your Startup, you want to work directly with each user. By doing so, you develop more intimate insight about your users. Hence you are doing things that don’t scale.

Talk to users and then write code.

Grow

Target a growth rate, ie a growth in users, of 10% per week.

Execute

Poor execution by founders is what makes companies fail not the competition.

Tips for Startup success

Find a Cofounder.

You should know each other well. The stressfulness of a Startup will stress your relationship.

Be determine

It is much more important to be determined than than smart. Only one person has to be super determined. There should be a tight enough bond between cofounders that the super determined cofounder is able to drag the other cofounder along.

Care about your users

Care enough about your users and your idea, product will evolve. You don’t necessarily have to be creative.

What Founders will get wrong

You will not pay enough attention to users.

You will build an elaborate thing but it is way better off finding someone who has the problem and building something to solve that problem. It is fine to ask them to pay.

You will shrink from contact with your users.

You will launch late.

If you are not embarrassed with what you have launched then you launched too late. You will wait too long to launch

Side note 1: one cofounder should own a bit more of the company than the other cofounder e.g. 51% to 49%

Choose launching in Beta than not launching.

Side note 2: Don’t raise too much money. You want to be lean and hungry.

PG’s rule of thumb about when to launch.

Launch as soon as you have a quantum of utility. Once you have at least one person who would be really happy with your product, launch your product.

How to choose a solution, feature or what to build.

Pick a solution that will get users the quickest

Pricing during launch

Choose a price. Should you need to raise prices later, you can grandfather your existing users

Do not price your early users out. You need them.

How to find an Angel

Angels are looking for you. If you find an Angel, ask them to put you in touch with other Angels.

Find a person who works at a startup and ask them to introduce you to their investors.

Finally and poignantly:

Starting a Startup is like catching a dragon by its tail. If it works.

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