3 ms·

I believe this is the essay you’re referring to: Before the Startup: http://www.paulgraham.com/before.html http://www.paulgraham.com/before.html

• bredren 5y ago
  It is, though I think he mentions advisers specifically in a different essay. “Playing house” is something everyone interested in or already working on a startup should familiarize themselves with, be able to point out a teammate And seek to avoid. Playing House activities are a hallmark of the rookie entrepreneur. I made these mistakes myself when I founded Gliph. One reason to be particularly careful about this is there’s an entire class of professionals who do nothing but look for people playing house and offer the services for equity or cash that are not relevant to what make startups go. They often hang around local non-valley startup incubators or angel groups. They are semi-retired people or in-between work themselves. Lawyers love this type of “entrepreneur.” Because the meetings and attention drive billable hours and there’s always tax and legal work That can be found to be done. None of these people have no idea what your users want. You’re supposed to figure that out. If they have some gateway into your initial user base, they probably should be on the team and committed. Otherwise you should work on a different problem. There are other ancillary activities to playing house that will disrupt your startup’s ability to succeed. Listen to the podcast episode with Michael Seibel on the ycombinator podcast series. These problems often Are created by non-technical founders more often. Early stage, premoney, f&f or angel funded are the most vulnerable.