Wisdom from Paul Graham — Compilation of quotes, essays, podcasts & more

Paul Graham is the founder of Y Combinator.

Paul Graham has been one of my favourite thinkers and has helped many entrepreneurs including me to think more clearly about how to build a startup, how to make something people want & in general perceive things more clearly in our surroundings.

I constantly read PG’s essays and recommend his content to everyone that can benefit from his wisdom. I thought why not create a master list and share it with everyone. Hope you will benefit out of it.

Paul Graham is the founder of Ycombinator — most sought after startup accelerator

Essays:

• Write like you talk — In this essay he talks about how writing in spoken language instead of written language leads to more people read what you write. Content marketers must read this essay.

• Why it’s safe for founders to be nice — He talks about how being nice, friendly can lead to better relations and business. Next time you feel you are being too nice, better keep that attitude :)

• Change your name — PG explains why not having .com domain name for your company shows signs of weakness. Whats in the name? Well something for sure.

• The ronco prinicple — Ronco principle is coined from Ron Conway, the silicon valley VC who is instrumental in most of the funding deals in valley.

• Mean people fail — Being mean makes you stupid. That’s why Paul hates fights. You never do your best work in a fight.

• Before the startup — Paul talks about the most important things that one should before starting a startup. My famous part in this essay is how most amazing ideas are counterintuitive in nature. Example : AIRBNB

• How to raise money —This essay focuses on phase 2 fundraising (few hundred K to millions USD) . This essay is the advice Paul gives to these startups.

• How to convince investors — When people hurt themselves lifting heavy things, it’s usually because they try to lift with their back.The right way to lift heavy things is to let your legs do the work.

• Do things that don’t scale — This is the most enlightening essay I have ever read. — Startups take off because the founders make them take off by doing things that don’t scale.

• How to get startup ideas — The way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas. It’s to look for problems, preferably problems you have yourself.

• Startup= Growth — A startup is a company designed to grow fast. Being newly founded does not in itself make a company a startup.

• AIRBNB — Paul talks about how he and Fred Wilson (VC that rejected Airbnb) exchanged emails about investing in Airbnb and how Fred missed that shot :) Paul shares the real email exchanges b/w them.

• What we look for in founders — Paul explains 5 qualities that he looks for while deciding to invest/onboard a startup in YCombinator.

• The top idea in your mind — it’s hard to do a really good job on anything you don’t think about in the shower.

• Organic startup ideas — The best way to come up with startup ideas is to ask yourself the question: what do you wish someone would make for you?

• Ramen profitable — Ramen profitable means a startup makes just enough to pay the founders’ living expenses.

• Five founders — PG talks about 5 founders who influenced him the most. You might have guessed a name already :)

• Startups in 13 sentences — One of the things I always tell startups is a principle I learned from Paul Buchheit: it’s better to make a few people really happy than to make a lot of people semi-happy.

• Why to start a startup in bad economy — PG talks about how a good founder can succeed even in bad economy and a bad founder can fail even in good economy.

• A fundraising survival guide — Raising money is the second hardest part of starting a startup. The hardest part is making something people want: most startups that die, die because they didn’t do that.

• The future of web startups — Paul Graham explains the trends of web startups in this essay and what happens to them in future.

• How not to die — If half the startups we fund succeed, then half of you are going to get rich and the other half are going to get nothing.

• The equity equation — PG explains the rationale behind the equity distribution b/w various stakeholders like investors, employees. He uses mathematics to back his thoughts.

• Why to not not start a startup — The way to deal with uncertainty is to analyze it into components. Most people who are reluctant to do something have about eight different reasons mixed together in their heads, and don’t know themselves which are biggest.

• The 18 mistakes that kill startups — If you have a list of all the things you shouldn’t do, you can turn that into a recipe for succeeding just by negating.

• The hardest lessons for startup to learn — PG talks about 8 lessons for startups which he has learned through his experience in funding startups at YCombinator.

• How to start a startup — You need three things to create a successful startup: to start with good people, to make something customers actually want, and to spend as little money as possible.

• Ideas for startups — If coming up with an idea for a startup equals coming up with a million dollar idea, then of course it’s going to seem hard. Too hard to bother trying.

• How to present to investors — This is golden piece of advice for all startup founders who are going to pitch to investors. PG talks about his experiences of YC demo days.

Quotes:

• “Startups are counter-intuitive”
• “Make something people want”
• “In the startup world, ‘not working’ is normal.”
• “There are plenty of smart people who get nowhere.”
• “If you really understand something, you can say it in fewest words, instead of thrashing about.”
• “Startups are so weird, that if you follow your instincts they will lead you astray.”
• “Startups often have to do dubious things.”
• “There are few sources of energy so powerful as a procrastinating college student.”
• “The recipe for great work is: very exacting taste, plus the ability to gratify it.”
• “The main reason nerds are unpopular is that they have other things to think about.”
• “Work with people you genuinely like and respect, and that you have known long enough to be sure.”
• “if you can imagine someone surpassing you, you should do it yourself.”
• “It’s hard to do a really good job on anything you don’t think about in the shower.”
• “If you have to choose between two theories, prefer the one that doesn’t center on you.”
• “If Apple were to grow the iPod into a cell phone with a web browser, Microsoft would be in big trouble.”
• “Don’t ignore your dreams; don’t work too much; say what you think; cultivate friendships; be happy.”
• “Mark Zuckerberg did not succeed in Facebook because he was an expert in startups. He succeeded despite being a complete n00b at startups.”
• “People who do good work often think that whatever they’re working on is no good. Others see what they’ve done and think it’s wonderful, but the creator sees nothing but flaws. This pattern is no coincidence: worry made the work good.”
• “The best way to convince investors is to start a startup that’s actually doing well, meaning growing fast & then simply tell investors so.”
• “Startups are all consuming. If you start a startup, it will take over your life to a degree that you cannot imagine.”
• “They way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas.”

Podcasts & Talks:

• Aaron Harris interviews Paul Graham during Startup School (Ycombinator).

• Paul Graham, essayist, programmer and partner in the y-combinator talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about start-ups, innovation, and creativity.

Paul explains about how they are trying to apply mass production techniques to startups funding. This was published in 2009.

http://files.libertyfund.org/econtalk/y2009/Grahaminnovation.mp3

Paul Graham giving talk in Stanford University

PG sits with Mark Andreessen and ask him about his thoughts on startups.

A talk with Mark Andreessen.

PG explaining his thoughts on VC funding.

Paul Graham with Mark Zuckerberg

PG explains what startups are during a keynote session

Office hours:

Office hours are 30 minutes sessions that YC partners conduct with YC Companies. Some of these office hours are the ones that were conducted for non YC companies and on stage.

This gives a super clarity on what happens during YC and what kind of questions are asked for the YC interview.

PG with Harj Taggar (YC partner)

Paul Graham and Sam Altman during office hours session

Practice app for YC

• There is too much trend of practicing YC questions that James Cunningham and Colin Hayhurst made a practice app for GoScale’s YC S12 Interview.

When someone gives a wrong answer to the YC practice app.

I, Paul Graham

Thank you.

I’ll continuously be adding to this list, if there’s any great PG content out there that I’m missing and you feel should be a part of this list, please do reach out!