I'm going to venture a guess that: Patrick is smart, gets things done, writes very well, and attracted an audience -- and that is why he was a natural hire for

I'm going to venture a guess that: Patrick is smart, gets things done, writes very well, and attracted an audience -- and that is why he was a natural hire for his role at Stripe. And for what it's worth, Paul Graham is all of those things, and that is why he was able to start YC. "Smart and gets things done" are table stakes. The key differentiators are "writes well and attracts an audience" so that your influence exceeds your personal energies. ...if that's the kind of life you want of course. There's lots of SQL optimization work that needs doing too, and some people find that much more satisfying.