Y Combinator: A Conversation with Paul Graham

Podcast Notes Key Takeaways

• The trait that matters most among the co-founders you choose: trustworthiness 
• In the beginning of your journey as a startup, do things that don’t scale
  • One way to do this – talk to your early users
• 99% of the time, having a team of co-founders > being a solo founder
• One of the most common mistakes startup founders make: Not paying enough attention to their users
• How do you know when it’s time to launch?
  • “Launch as soon as you have a quantum of utility, which means as soon as there’s ONE person in the world who’s glad you launched because now they can do something they couldn’t do before” – Paul Graham
  • “The risk of launching early is not as great as the risk of launching late” – Paul Graham 

YC Partner Geoff Ralston talks with Paul Graham, one of the founders of YC, and tries to draw out as much startup wisdom as possible in 1/2 hour of conversation.

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