14 ms·

Startups in 13 Sentences

322 points by mqt 18y ago

staunch 18y ago
> And understanding your users will even ensure your morale, because when everything else is collapsing around you, having just ten users who love you will keep you going. I feel guilty that this just doesn't do all that much for me. I do get some satisfaction from making a user happy, but about as much as I get from eating quality ice cream. I get far more enjoyment out of solving a difficult technical problem.
- ciscoriordan 18y ago
  Well then get a co-founder / hire people who really enjoy customer service.
  - staunch 18y ago
    I have exactly that. Just pointing out that for me personally it's not particularly motivating.
mad44 18y ago
Great sentence: As in science, the hard part is not answering questions but asking them: the hard part is seeing something new that users lack.
vaksel 18y ago
seems like we've heard all of this before
- brlewis 18y ago
  I've heard similar things, but not exactly that you should favor completely satisfying a small number of people over partially satisfying a large number. That directly affects decisions I'm making now.
  - veteran 18y ago
    careful..in getting carried away by this advice though..unless your product targets large enough market you would not get opportunity to experiment/fail and succeed so yes start the inferno by targeting small niche but don't be esoteric unless you are going to get premium for being exclusive..
    - brlewis 18y ago
      The feature requests I'm getting now are not esoteric. They aren't exactly "needs" either. I don't know how much the "make few love you" rule applies to satisfying wants rather than needs. But as I prioritize making existing users very happy vs fishing for a larger number of users, pg has certainly given me food for thought.
- pg 18y ago
  That wouldn't be surprising. This is kind of like an experimental result: if you optimally compress the advice for starting a startup down to around 10 sentences, what are they? It's the nature of compression that everything in the compressed version is in the original. Even so there were several things that seemed new to me. Let me check. I never quite realized till now that a version 1.0 was (or could be) nothing more than a pretext. The rectangle metaphor and the point about one side being easier to change is new; I only thought of that a couple weeks ago. The greater difficulty of lying to yourself when expanding userwise is something I don't think I've written about. I don't think I've mentioned that founders' own standards for customer service are artificially low, or that customer service is mostly a way of studying users. I don't think I realized before that being cheap was interchangeable with iterating, or mentioned that a culture of cheapness keeps companies young. I don't think I've written about how paying distractions are so much worse than other kinds, or that it's specifically because they work like interrupts. I didn't realize till recently that the right metaphor for a deal was a background process. And I definitely didn't realize till I'd actually written out the list which would be the most important one, or that it was involved in half the others. Not that bad for an essay only 2.5 pages long.
  - wheels 18y ago
    The 1.0 being a pretext really rang true for us. It was interesting noting comparing how what we thought was important with what people were actually the critical things in making a purchase decision were, but nobody tells you those things seriously until they can look at your product and see what it's not.
    - alain94040 18y ago
      Paul is probably exaggerating a bit on that rule, to make his point across. You can have a version 1.0 that actually solves a real problem! But you know what he means...
      - wheels 18y ago
        You can, but I'm tempted to say that if you're a first-time founder that it's probably luck. Having something out there was what changed our thinking from "this is the software we're making" to "this is the market we're addressing". It still took a while to really sink in and figure out what the implications of that were, and it's no doubt a process that we'll see continue once we push the next bits out.
- veteran 18y ago
  I agree..what will be useful is long thoughtful analysis, case studies around such points that expose nuances of decision making and evolution of ideas/business models and not copycat lists which assume there is some sort of formula in the start up success..
cperciva 18y ago
I have check marks next to 8 of these, and I'm working on a 9th (ironically, #9 -- "Get ramen profitable"); but I've broken 4 of these rules, and I don't regret it in the slightest. Rule #1 -- Pick good cofounders. I picked no cofounders, based largely on the fact that that I couldn't think of anyone who would be interested in joining me who wouldn't dramatically lower the average founder quality. (Ok, that's being a bit facetious -- but I'm working in an area where domain knowledge is extremely important, so there are lots of wonderfully talented people who would be utterly useless to me as cofounders.) Rule #2 -- Launch fast; and Rule #3 -- Let your idea evolve. I started working on tarsnap in September 2006, and I didn't open tarsnap to the public until November 2008. Over that time I ironed out some technical details behind the scenes, but the largest change in my idea was going from planning to charge $0.25/GB to actually charging $0.30/GB. Since then, I've listened to my users and occasionally added an unplanned-for feature because of a request (or more often, several requests for the same thing from different people); but most of the ways that tarsnap has deviated from my original plan have simply been in the ordering of when I implemented which features. The vision behind tarsnap, from 2.5 years ago -- an online snapshotted backup service with a tar front-end, a heavy emphasis on security, and a linear pricing model -- hasn't changed at all. Rule #10 -- Avoid distractions. I've remained as FreeBSD Security Officer while working on tarsnap, and I don't regret it in the slightest. Yes, it has taken time away from tarsnap on occasion; however, it has also allowed me to further enhance my domain knowledge, and has brought many people to tarsnap (one person recently described tarsnap as being a backup system with "a good pedigree", which I'm presuming refers to my open source security background). Now, for all that I've broken these rules without regrets, I still think that they're good rules -- in most cases. But I think there should be a Rule #0: Realize that there are always exceptions, and understand why these rules are usually correct instead of applying them blindly.
- rokhayakebe 18y ago
  Although I agree with your comment, I must say that everyone (and I mean everyone), who is a startup entrepreneur, knows about HN, and reads all PGs essays knows that these are advices, opinions based on the experience from funding over 100 startups. Not rules, advices. And although I applaud your efforts and accomplishments at Tarsnap, I must say that you base your argument on significantly less than 100 startups.
jacktang 18y ago
> 9. Get ramen profitable. > 10. Avoid distractions. Someone I knew they launched startup and the guys also have some part-time jobs. What's your idea?
tokenadult 18y ago
My favorite: "So being cheap is (almost) interchangeable with iterating rapidly," followed up in footnote 4 with "They'd be interchangeable if markets stood still. Since they don't, working twice as fast is better than having twice as much time."
mfhughes 18y ago
> 13. Deals fall through. Yeah, sometimes silently, as in the counter-party just stops calling you back one day. Not unlike the dating scene.
user 18y ago
I have a great admiration for PG. But PG sometimes creates a false reality for those young kids of becoming millionaires some day with their startup. But the truth is most of them would be heartbroken when they realize that is not always possible. I hope some of you realize this and don't waste precious life and be happy. I hope I made sense.
- pg 18y ago
  It would be easier to accuse me of being repetitive than not warning people. http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Apaulgraham.com+%22most+startups+fail%22 http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Apaulgraham.com+%22most... http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Apaulgraham.com+%22probably+fail%22 http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Apaulgraham.com+%22prob... etc
- fauigerzigerk 18y ago
  The question is whether trying and failing to become a millionaire by doing something interesting makes you more unhappy than not trying. If the difference between expectations and reality is what makes us unhappy, then lowering aspirations to zero is what would make everybody happiest. I don't believe that it would. Creating the impression that it is possible to be sucessful with your own startup cannot be false reality. Possibility is never reality, and founding a startup isn't taking part in a ponzi scheme. Some people being successful doesn't lower the odds of others to be successful as well.
  - omnivore 18y ago
    And it's a hell of a lot better than working for someone else and letting them take ALL of the credit, while maintaining the inefficient status quo of their existence.
- gstar 18y ago
  Why do you need to be a millionaire though? I think working for yourself, on (mostly) your own terms on your own product that you're passionate about is more meaningful than the box you might one day tick next to millionaire. There's no risk in failure either, you can always go and work for someone else, and personal bankruptcy isn't _THAT_ bad. I don't think PG is giving anyone false hope that they'll hit the lottery - he's just offering an alternative. And as everyone has said tons of times before, your chances of making a million by starting your own business are orders of magnitude higher than winning the lottery.
jayp 18y ago
This list is deceptively compact.. so many experiences summarized in so little space. Yes, I agree: nothing really unheard of...but all presented succinctly in one place by one cogent voice. Absolutely superfluous comment: I heart pg.
DenisM 18y ago
I like this taxonomy, almost "the startup testaments". :) To turn this into a work of classics one needs to add a bit of detail to each of 13 sentences (from all the material that is already out there): a short essay three anecdotes illustrating the point one anecdote providing a counter-example (to provide context and also remind readers about fallability of generic rules) a short list of literature (e.g. pointers to specific chapter of "founder@work", "4 steps to the epiphany etc") For each aspiring hacker this could easily replace days worth of reading of assorted stuff out there, just trying to get up to speed. In turn, more hackers will jump in.
c00p3r 18y ago
Why not write/compile and publish Carnegie-style book about hackers and startups? =) Like 'How to stop reading websites and start doing things.'
- vyrotek 18y ago
  I could use a book like that
- run4yourlives 18y ago
  If you want to "stop reading websites and start doing things" though, you should be, you know, doing things, and not reading books. :-)
  - c00p3r 18y ago
    books is different - you can feel them.
Jaggu 18y ago
I agree with checklist. This list is perfect for most startups but launch quick is not good enough. We need to launch and need to get good feedback so we can fix those issues. Sometime it is hard to get feedback. In that case we need someone who can market our product or who has good contacts to get the word out. Technical people like me has hard time to sell the product or idea. So for me (14) Hire or find co-founder with marketing skills.
martinzwilling 18y ago
This is a great post! To amplify the first point, the question I often hear is "What are the right attributes for co-founders or CEOs?" I think you will find my summary http://blog.startupprofessionals.com/2009/02/ideal-credentials-to-be-startup-ceo.html http://blog.startupprofessionals.com/2009/02/ideal-credentia... helpful for picking co-founders.
omnivore 18y ago
The problem with these posts -- and I liked it -- is that it always simplifies the path to all of this. I think a lot of folks are always missing something. Either they're decent hackers, but don't have partners. Or they're bad hackers and can't find a hacker to work with the build what they're gonna sell. Or they have a team and don't have a good enough idea to sell something. I just think there are a lot of barriers to entry for folks who didn't go to Top 25 schools (or drop out of one) and as a result, they read stuff like this, get excited and think "I can make it!" without realizing the folly of their poor pursuits.
wensing 18y ago
Once you know what to make, it's mere effort to make it, and most decent hackers are capable of that. This explains why someone like myself can start a startup and not feel embarrassed when they meet real wunderkinds (specifically CS gurus) along the way. On the other hand, maybe this means that good hackers aren't necessarily CS geniuses? http://www.paulgraham.com/gh.html http://www.paulgraham.com/gh.html
dmh2000 18y ago
>10. Avoid distractions. hacker news, reddit etc
petercooper 18y ago
The words "sales" or "sell" aren't mentioned once. The ideas of launching fast to learn what to really build is a great suggestion but really one of sales. You need to launch fast to know what will sell (and what won't) so you can develop something that will sell. So.. 14. Sell as soon as possible. Find out what people will buy for. Never stop selling.
Mistone 18y ago
maybe the best PG ever? So short and sweet. Follow these simple rules and you can succeed, don't and your startup will die. The customer service one was a surprise for some reason, not that it does not make complete sense but not something I would immediately associate with HN/YC. Its just so important to be above and beyond with early customers, helping customers is the best way for founders to stay connected with what matters and learn what they should be doing. its a godsend of insight for making something people want.
Skeletor 18y ago
Inspirational advice from Paul Graham yet again! Reading his essays is what truly inspired me to start my own company. I think this type of essay still gets me psyched up. I'm definitely trying to follow rule #11 right now and not get demoralized as we start to hit our first few obstacles as a real company.
jumpidea 18y ago
Russian version -- http://spring.jumpidea.com/post/80938207/paul-graham-13sentences http://spring.jumpidea.com/post/80938207/paul-graham-13sente...
liubinskas 18y ago
Great post Paul. I'm pushing premium over freemium. It relates to point 5 heavily and we're getting the startups we work with to stop trying to be a freemium company and start with premium first. I've outlined my arguments here; http://www.pollenizer.com/content/premiree-more-premium-less-free http://www.pollenizer.com/content/premiree-more-premium-less...
michaelsprague 18y ago
Great post. Compliments the article I read just prior to this: "Working For Somebody Else Never Amounted To Anything - Wayne Huizenga " http://tinyurl.com/c6fg47 http://tinyurl.com/c6fg47
ashwin 18y ago
Selecting good co founders is valid however I believe trusting them in tough times is even more important.
pbachmann 18y ago
Thanks to Paul Graham for his encouragement and instruction - without it I might not have even got this far. (I've just launched a startup at http://www.straighttointerview.com http://www.straighttointerview.com). While I have done my best to abide by PG's rules there are some habits I just can't give up. I could easily ruin whatever prospects my startup has by my pig-headed determination to give people what I feel they need rather than what they say they want.
kirubakaran 18y ago
"Is your StartUp rated PG-13?" :-)
jasonkester 18y ago
Self assessing... have:[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,11,12,13],missing[9,10] 9 is a transient, since we only started charging last week. 10 is partially a result of 9, as we do consulting to fund ourselves. This is a great list though. I can think of real-world examples from the last year that reinforced each of those things on the "have" list.
pramit 18y ago
#12 Don't give up. That is what I have ticked. If you believe in what you are doing, that's all you need, especially during the hard times.
bart 18y ago
Rule #10 -- Avoid distractions. This is the real startup killer for our last startup. But it goes with other problems like get ramen profitable. Since you are not profitable and you need to eat, you will be very easy to be distracted.. Do you know, what are living expenses in SFO? There are about USD 500/month in Czech Republic :)
djahng 18y ago
Rule #1 could read along the lines of: "Is the [potential] cofounder an animal?" I think this is one of the most difficult rules to abide by because a lot of very talented people say they would like to start a company, but never will. When it comes down to it, they'd rather be unhappy at their job and receive a steady paycheck than take a risk and start their own company. Do you lower your standards and start a company with someone who may be talented, but may jump ship at the first job offer elsewhere? It takes time to find out what people are really made of. From my experience, people who say they want to start their own business or be their own boss really just want to be a mid-level manager. Other people have the "Entrepreneurial ADD" and will never be able to stick to one idea from beginning to end. Others get scared of the prospects of late-night coding and early mornings, and decide to go to grad school instead (how does that make any sense????). What's the solution for finding good cofounders? I think at some point everyone comes across someone who would be a perfect business partner, but has different ideas. Start working to form a business with that person regardless. It's likely that the business will evolve into something that neither cofounder originally anticipated. So getting everyone on board with the same idea may not be all that important, you just need to be able to work together.
- continuestory 18y ago
  This is what happened with me. Has been working fine since. 'Start working together regardless, just be able to work together'!
thepanister 18y ago
hmmmmmm launch it fast... launch it early. This article is... perfect?
psugar 18y ago
As always great post. On footnote 4 where you say being cheap and iterating are almost the same but the reason why they are not is markets move. I would point out that sometimes they move away from you (competitors come in, new ideas, etc) BUT, sometimes they move towards you, and that is the classic where the media says "they were an overnight success" but you see they had been working at it for ten years.
- continuestory 18y ago
  You've said it in a nutshell. Exactly how it really is. PG should include this some where. Many people are blinded by the ways media portray stories and the reality behind them!
  - psugar 18y ago
    It really is true. Look at the medical "startup" Walmart partnered with. They've been around for more than ten years. I'm sure they're cheap. The problem with "going big or going home" is that in many cases you are going home. The one thing I've learned is that in the vast majority of cases, the market moves much slower than you expect. If you find yourself in the case of a market moving faster that's usually the problem to have....then you hire and spend like a maniac but it doesn't matter because if the market is truly moving that fast you're making money hand over fist. The problem comes when you are spending like that and the market isn't growing that fast.....then you flame out.
wyclif 18y ago
#2: "Till you know that you're wasting your time." Until you know that...
tiergarten 18y ago
My partner and I are launching a new business and have adopted your "13 sentences" as our bible. FWIW, I learned your #1 rule about the choice of partners many years ago at my first startup. Partnering with a dummy for short-term benefits (e.g. connections to investors in the case I saw) will be the death of a startup. Thanks for posting this.
guglanisam 18y ago
I believe this list can be brought down to just two basic (not just one): - Customers: Understand them, improve their lives, get them to pay regularly, get them to spread the word - Costs: Keep them as near to zero as possible. That will enable you to be profitable even with minimum number of customers During the first year of your startup don;t worry about anything other than the above two. Special warning: Dont spend anytime on external fund raising, fund raising is the most distracting thing for startups and something where you have least control and very low odds, unless you accomplish something "of value". If you can get thru the first year with a complete focus on Customers & Costs and hit break even by the end of first year. I can guarantee that you on the way to build a successful company (not just a good startup)
sambayer 17y ago
I've been searching for a term to describe our most recent milestone (15 months into our venture). "Ramen profitable" is it! Thanks a bunch for that. Sam www.b2b2dot0.com
sambayer 17y ago
I've been searching for a term to describe our most recent milestone (15 months into our venture). "Ramen profitable" is it! Thanks a bunch for that. Sam www.b2b2dot0.com

322 points by mqt 18y ago

> And understanding your users will even ensure your morale, because when everything else is collapsing around you, having just ten users who love you will keep you going. I feel guilty that this just doesn't do all that much for me. I do get some satisfaction from making a user happy, but about as much as I get from eating quality ice cream. I get far more enjoyment out of solving a difficult technical problem.

ciscoriordan 18y ago
Well then get a co-founder / hire people who really enjoy customer service.
- staunch 18y ago
  I have exactly that. Just pointing out that for me personally it's not particularly motivating.

mad44 18y ago

Great sentence: As in science, the hard part is not answering questions but asking them: the hard part is seeing something new that users lack.

vaksel 18y ago

seems like we've heard all of this before

brlewis 18y ago
I've heard similar things, but not exactly that you should favor completely satisfying a small number of people over partially satisfying a large number. That directly affects decisions I'm making now.
- veteran 18y ago
  careful..in getting carried away by this advice though..unless your product targets large enough market you would not get opportunity to experiment/fail and succeed so yes start the inferno by targeting small niche but don't be esoteric unless you are going to get premium for being exclusive..
  - brlewis 18y ago
    The feature requests I'm getting now are not esoteric. They aren't exactly "needs" either. I don't know how much the "make few love you" rule applies to satisfying wants rather than needs. But as I prioritize making existing users very happy vs fishing for a larger number of users, pg has certainly given me food for thought.
pg 18y ago
That wouldn't be surprising. This is kind of like an experimental result: if you optimally compress the advice for starting a startup down to around 10 sentences, what are they? It's the nature of compression that everything in the compressed version is in the original. Even so there were several things that seemed new to me. Let me check. I never quite realized till now that a version 1.0 was (or could be) nothing more than a pretext. The rectangle metaphor and the point about one side being easier to change is new; I only thought of that a couple weeks ago. The greater difficulty of lying to yourself when expanding userwise is something I don't think I've written about. I don't think I've mentioned that founders' own standards for customer service are artificially low, or that customer service is mostly a way of studying users. I don't think I realized before that being cheap was interchangeable with iterating, or mentioned that a culture of cheapness keeps companies young. I don't think I've written about how paying distractions are so much worse than other kinds, or that it's specifically because they work like interrupts. I didn't realize till recently that the right metaphor for a deal was a background process. And I definitely didn't realize till I'd actually written out the list which would be the most important one, or that it was involved in half the others. Not that bad for an essay only 2.5 pages long.
- wheels 18y ago
  The 1.0 being a pretext really rang true for us. It was interesting noting comparing how what we thought was important with what people were actually the critical things in making a purchase decision were, but nobody tells you those things seriously until they can look at your product and see what it's not.
  - alain94040 18y ago
    Paul is probably exaggerating a bit on that rule, to make his point across. You can have a version 1.0 that actually solves a real problem! But you know what he means...
    - wheels 18y ago
      You can, but I'm tempted to say that if you're a first-time founder that it's probably luck. Having something out there was what changed our thinking from "this is the software we're making" to "this is the market we're addressing". It still took a while to really sink in and figure out what the implications of that were, and it's no doubt a process that we'll see continue once we push the next bits out.
veteran 18y ago
I agree..what will be useful is long thoughtful analysis, case studies around such points that expose nuances of decision making and evolution of ideas/business models and not copycat lists which assume there is some sort of formula in the start up success..

cperciva 18y ago

I have check marks next to 8 of these, and I'm working on a 9th (ironically, #9 -- "Get ramen profitable"); but I've broken 4 of these rules, and I don't regret it in the slightest. Rule #1 -- Pick good cofounders. I picked no cofounders, based largely on the fact that that I couldn't think of anyone who would be interested in joining me who wouldn't dramatically lower the average founder quality. (Ok, that's being a bit facetious -- but I'm working in an area where domain knowledge is extremely important, so there are lots of wonderfully talented people who would be utterly useless to me as cofounders.) Rule #2 -- Launch fast; and Rule #3 -- Let your idea evolve. I started working on tarsnap in September 2006, and I didn't open tarsnap to the public until November 2008. Over that time I ironed out some technical details behind the scenes, but the largest change in my idea was going from planning to charge $0.25/GB to actually charging $0.30/GB. Since then, I've listened to my users and occasionally added an unplanned-for feature because of a request (or more often, several requests for the same thing from different people); but most of the ways that tarsnap has deviated from my original plan have simply been in the ordering of when I implemented which features. The vision behind tarsnap, from 2.5 years ago -- an online snapshotted backup service with a tar front-end, a heavy emphasis on security, and a linear pricing model -- hasn't changed at all. Rule #10 -- Avoid distractions. I've remained as FreeBSD Security Officer while working on tarsnap, and I don't regret it in the slightest. Yes, it has taken time away from tarsnap on occasion; however, it has also allowed me to further enhance my domain knowledge, and has brought many people to tarsnap (one person recently described tarsnap as being a backup system with "a good pedigree", which I'm presuming refers to my open source security background). Now, for all that I've broken these rules without regrets, I still think that they're good rules -- in most cases. But I think there should be a Rule #0: Realize that there are always exceptions, and understand why these rules are usually correct instead of applying them blindly.

rokhayakebe 18y ago
Although I agree with your comment, I must say that everyone (and I mean everyone), who is a startup entrepreneur, knows about HN, and reads all PGs essays knows that these are advices, opinions based on the experience from funding over 100 startups. Not rules, advices. And although I applaud your efforts and accomplishments at Tarsnap, I must say that you base your argument on significantly less than 100 startups.

jacktang 18y ago

> 9. Get ramen profitable. > 10. Avoid distractions. Someone I knew they launched startup and the guys also have some part-time jobs. What's your idea?

tokenadult 18y ago

My favorite: "So being cheap is (almost) interchangeable with iterating rapidly," followed up in footnote 4 with "They'd be interchangeable if markets stood still. Since they don't, working twice as fast is better than having twice as much time."

mfhughes 18y ago

> 13. Deals fall through. Yeah, sometimes silently, as in the counter-party just stops calling you back one day. Not unlike the dating scene.

user 18y ago

I have a great admiration for PG. But PG sometimes creates a false reality for those young kids of becoming millionaires some day with their startup. But the truth is most of them would be heartbroken when they realize that is not always possible. I hope some of you realize this and don't waste precious life and be happy. I hope I made sense.

pg 18y ago
It would be easier to accuse me of being repetitive than not warning people. http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Apaulgraham.com+%22most+startups+fail%22 http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Apaulgraham.com+%22most... http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Apaulgraham.com+%22probably+fail%22 http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Apaulgraham.com+%22prob... etc
fauigerzigerk 18y ago
The question is whether trying and failing to become a millionaire by doing something interesting makes you more unhappy than not trying. If the difference between expectations and reality is what makes us unhappy, then lowering aspirations to zero is what would make everybody happiest. I don't believe that it would. Creating the impression that it is possible to be sucessful with your own startup cannot be false reality. Possibility is never reality, and founding a startup isn't taking part in a ponzi scheme. Some people being successful doesn't lower the odds of others to be successful as well.
- omnivore 18y ago
  And it's a hell of a lot better than working for someone else and letting them take ALL of the credit, while maintaining the inefficient status quo of their existence.
gstar 18y ago
Why do you need to be a millionaire though? I think working for yourself, on (mostly) your own terms on your own product that you're passionate about is more meaningful than the box you might one day tick next to millionaire. There's no risk in failure either, you can always go and work for someone else, and personal bankruptcy isn't _THAT_ bad. I don't think PG is giving anyone false hope that they'll hit the lottery - he's just offering an alternative. And as everyone has said tons of times before, your chances of making a million by starting your own business are orders of magnitude higher than winning the lottery.

jayp 18y ago

This list is deceptively compact.. so many experiences summarized in so little space. Yes, I agree: nothing really unheard of...but all presented succinctly in one place by one cogent voice. Absolutely superfluous comment: I heart pg.

DenisM 18y ago

I like this taxonomy, almost "the startup testaments". :) To turn this into a work of classics one needs to add a bit of detail to each of 13 sentences (from all the material that is already out there): a short essay three anecdotes illustrating the point one anecdote providing a counter-example (to provide context and also remind readers about fallability of generic rules) a short list of literature (e.g. pointers to specific chapter of "founder@work", "4 steps to the epiphany etc") For each aspiring hacker this could easily replace days worth of reading of assorted stuff out there, just trying to get up to speed. In turn, more hackers will jump in.

c00p3r 18y ago

Why not write/compile and publish Carnegie-style book about hackers and startups? =) Like 'How to stop reading websites and start doing things.'

vyrotek 18y ago
I could use a book like that
run4yourlives 18y ago
If you want to "stop reading websites and start doing things" though, you should be, you know, doing things, and not reading books. :-)
- c00p3r 18y ago
  books is different - you can feel them.

Jaggu 18y ago

I agree with checklist. This list is perfect for most startups but launch quick is not good enough. We need to launch and need to get good feedback so we can fix those issues. Sometime it is hard to get feedback. In that case we need someone who can market our product or who has good contacts to get the word out. Technical people like me has hard time to sell the product or idea. So for me (14) Hire or find co-founder with marketing skills.

martinzwilling 18y ago

This is a great post! To amplify the first point, the question I often hear is "What are the right attributes for co-founders or CEOs?" I think you will find my summary http://blog.startupprofessionals.com/2009/02/ideal-credentials-to-be-startup-ceo.html http://blog.startupprofessionals.com/2009/02/ideal-credentia... helpful for picking co-founders.

omnivore 18y ago

The problem with these posts -- and I liked it -- is that it always simplifies the path to all of this. I think a lot of folks are always missing something. Either they're decent hackers, but don't have partners. Or they're bad hackers and can't find a hacker to work with the build what they're gonna sell. Or they have a team and don't have a good enough idea to sell something. I just think there are a lot of barriers to entry for folks who didn't go to Top 25 schools (or drop out of one) and as a result, they read stuff like this, get excited and think "I can make it!" without realizing the folly of their poor pursuits.

wensing 18y ago

Once you know what to make, it's mere effort to make it, and most decent hackers are capable of that. This explains why someone like myself can start a startup and not feel embarrassed when they meet real wunderkinds (specifically CS gurus) along the way. On the other hand, maybe this means that good hackers aren't necessarily CS geniuses? http://www.paulgraham.com/gh.html http://www.paulgraham.com/gh.html

dmh2000 18y ago

>10. Avoid distractions. hacker news, reddit etc

petercooper 18y ago

The words "sales" or "sell" aren't mentioned once. The ideas of launching fast to learn what to really build is a great suggestion but really one of sales. You need to launch fast to know what will sell (and what won't) so you can develop something that will sell. So.. 14. Sell as soon as possible. Find out what people will buy for. Never stop selling.

Mistone 18y ago

maybe the best PG ever? So short and sweet. Follow these simple rules and you can succeed, don't and your startup will die. The customer service one was a surprise for some reason, not that it does not make complete sense but not something I would immediately associate with HN/YC. Its just so important to be above and beyond with early customers, helping customers is the best way for founders to stay connected with what matters and learn what they should be doing. its a godsend of insight for making something people want.

Skeletor 18y ago

Inspirational advice from Paul Graham yet again! Reading his essays is what truly inspired me to start my own company. I think this type of essay still gets me psyched up. I'm definitely trying to follow rule #11 right now and not get demoralized as we start to hit our first few obstacles as a real company.

jumpidea 18y ago

Russian version -- http://spring.jumpidea.com/post/80938207/paul-graham-13sentences http://spring.jumpidea.com/post/80938207/paul-graham-13sente...

liubinskas 18y ago

Great post Paul. I'm pushing premium over freemium. It relates to point 5 heavily and we're getting the startups we work with to stop trying to be a freemium company and start with premium first. I've outlined my arguments here; http://www.pollenizer.com/content/premiree-more-premium-less-free http://www.pollenizer.com/content/premiree-more-premium-less...

michaelsprague 18y ago

Great post. Compliments the article I read just prior to this: "Working For Somebody Else Never Amounted To Anything - Wayne Huizenga " http://tinyurl.com/c6fg47 http://tinyurl.com/c6fg47

ashwin 18y ago

Selecting good co founders is valid however I believe trusting them in tough times is even more important.

pbachmann 18y ago

Thanks to Paul Graham for his encouragement and instruction - without it I might not have even got this far. (I've just launched a startup at http://www.straighttointerview.com http://www.straighttointerview.com). While I have done my best to abide by PG's rules there are some habits I just can't give up. I could easily ruin whatever prospects my startup has by my pig-headed determination to give people what I feel they need rather than what they say they want.

kirubakaran 18y ago

"Is your StartUp rated PG-13?" :-)

jasonkester 18y ago

Self assessing... have:[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,11,12,13],missing[9,10] 9 is a transient, since we only started charging last week. 10 is partially a result of 9, as we do consulting to fund ourselves. This is a great list though. I can think of real-world examples from the last year that reinforced each of those things on the "have" list.

pramit 18y ago

#12 Don't give up. That is what I have ticked. If you believe in what you are doing, that's all you need, especially during the hard times.

bart 18y ago

Rule #10 -- Avoid distractions. This is the real startup killer for our last startup. But it goes with other problems like get ramen profitable. Since you are not profitable and you need to eat, you will be very easy to be distracted.. Do you know, what are living expenses in SFO? There are about USD 500/month in Czech Republic :)

djahng 18y ago

Rule #1 could read along the lines of: "Is the [potential] cofounder an animal?" I think this is one of the most difficult rules to abide by because a lot of very talented people say they would like to start a company, but never will. When it comes down to it, they'd rather be unhappy at their job and receive a steady paycheck than take a risk and start their own company. Do you lower your standards and start a company with someone who may be talented, but may jump ship at the first job offer elsewhere? It takes time to find out what people are really made of. From my experience, people who say they want to start their own business or be their own boss really just want to be a mid-level manager. Other people have the "Entrepreneurial ADD" and will never be able to stick to one idea from beginning to end. Others get scared of the prospects of late-night coding and early mornings, and decide to go to grad school instead (how does that make any sense????). What's the solution for finding good cofounders? I think at some point everyone comes across someone who would be a perfect business partner, but has different ideas. Start working to form a business with that person regardless. It's likely that the business will evolve into something that neither cofounder originally anticipated. So getting everyone on board with the same idea may not be all that important, you just need to be able to work together.

continuestory 18y ago
This is what happened with me. Has been working fine since. 'Start working together regardless, just be able to work together'!

thepanister 18y ago

hmmmmmm launch it fast... launch it early. This article is... perfect?

psugar 18y ago

As always great post. On footnote 4 where you say being cheap and iterating are almost the same but the reason why they are not is markets move. I would point out that sometimes they move away from you (competitors come in, new ideas, etc) BUT, sometimes they move towards you, and that is the classic where the media says "they were an overnight success" but you see they had been working at it for ten years.

continuestory 18y ago
You've said it in a nutshell. Exactly how it really is. PG should include this some where. Many people are blinded by the ways media portray stories and the reality behind them!
- psugar 18y ago
  It really is true. Look at the medical "startup" Walmart partnered with. They've been around for more than ten years. I'm sure they're cheap. The problem with "going big or going home" is that in many cases you are going home. The one thing I've learned is that in the vast majority of cases, the market moves much slower than you expect. If you find yourself in the case of a market moving faster that's usually the problem to have....then you hire and spend like a maniac but it doesn't matter because if the market is truly moving that fast you're making money hand over fist. The problem comes when you are spending like that and the market isn't growing that fast.....then you flame out.

wyclif 18y ago

#2: "Till you know that you're wasting your time." Until you know that...

tiergarten 18y ago

My partner and I are launching a new business and have adopted your "13 sentences" as our bible. FWIW, I learned your #1 rule about the choice of partners many years ago at my first startup. Partnering with a dummy for short-term benefits (e.g. connections to investors in the case I saw) will be the death of a startup. Thanks for posting this.

guglanisam 18y ago

I believe this list can be brought down to just two basic (not just one): - Customers: Understand them, improve their lives, get them to pay regularly, get them to spread the word - Costs: Keep them as near to zero as possible. That will enable you to be profitable even with minimum number of customers During the first year of your startup don;t worry about anything other than the above two. Special warning: Dont spend anytime on external fund raising, fund raising is the most distracting thing for startups and something where you have least control and very low odds, unless you accomplish something "of value". If you can get thru the first year with a complete focus on Customers & Costs and hit break even by the end of first year. I can guarantee that you on the way to build a successful company (not just a good startup)

sambayer 17y ago

I've been searching for a term to describe our most recent milestone (15 months into our venture). "Ramen profitable" is it! Thanks a bunch for that. Sam www.b2b2dot0.com

sambayer 17y ago

I've been searching for a term to describe our most recent milestone (15 months into our venture). "Ramen profitable" is it! Thanks a bunch for that. Sam www.b2b2dot0.com