What is your favorite Paul Graham quote?
Johannes Grenzemann
32 replies
Mine is: Build sth. 100 people love, not something 1mio people kind of like!
Replies
Rolf Mulder@rolfmulder
https://twitter.com/paulg/status... - where he quoted me ;-). Was kind of awesome to be noticed by someone you have been reading and following for years.
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Cartalog
Mine has to be — do things that don't scale.
FromNotion
Mine are: "Make something people want" and "Do Things that Don't Scale".
YC Application Optimizer
@shashcoffe Yeah, I also live "do things that don't scale". Thinkings about that always helps me coming up with crazy & interesting ideas...
@shashcoffe Haven't heard that one before. I do like it a lot!
Sleek Pay
@between_team @shashcoffe @jgrenzemann Doing things that don't scale is a classic startup mantra, but I've always found you have to be careful not to incur too much tech debt - if your product is the tech, it better work as you scale! The user aquisition and process doesn't have to scale at the start
@shashcoffe @jgrenzemann @daniel_baum That's definitely true. In the tech side if you hardcode/scrap together everything you won't be prepared for growth.
YC Application Optimizer
@shashcoffe @daniel_baum @between_team yeah sure - but on the otherside: how many team/companies do I know that focus so much on "beeing prepared for growth" and it newer comes, because they move too slow and don't get any momentum on the market side. I'm quite aware that this isn't a yes/no black/white question - but anyhow: once you have found out what to build (product/market fit) its more likely for you to raise more money (and worst-case: begin from scratch with dev). But the otherway around is worse - no customers, no money - but very very well written code ;)
Neuton AutoML
"It's better to make a few people really happy than to make a lot of people semi-happy"
YC Application Optimizer
@inna_proshkina sounds like a variant of "Build sth. 100 people love, not something 1mio people kind of like!"
"What I tell founders is not to sweat the business model too much at first. The most important task at first is to build something people want. If you don't do that, it won't matter how clever your business model is."
YC Application Optimizer
Mine is: Work with people you genuinely like & respect, and that you have known long enough to be sure.
YC Application Optimizer
@mouna_selmi True, true. Founding a startup is like climbing the everest. In such an adventure you want to have folks around that you can trust/rely on - even when things get nasty and the relationships gets under pressure.
For me:
"The word 'try' is an especially valuable component. I disagree here with Yoda, who said there is no try. There is try. It implies there's no punishment if you fail. You're driven by curiosity instead of duty".
Sleek Pay
~not a quote ~ His essay on "Shlep Blindness" is really impactful for those trying to start a company
I see a lot of my favorites already listed; a thoughtful concept I learned was "High Resolution Funding"
Here's my favorite of his.
“The main reason nerds are unpopular is that they have other things to think about.”