No matter what you choose, build stuff and be around smart people.
Great execution is at least 10 times more important and a 100 times harder than a good idea.
As long as you keep doing the right thing and have the best product, you can beat the bigger company.
Aim to be the best in the world at whatever you do professionally. Even if you miss, you'll probably end up in a pretty good place.
You only get points when you make something the market wants. So if you work really hard on the wrong things, no one will care.
When it comes to starting startups, in many ways, it's easier to start a hard startup than an easy startup.
Remember that you are more likely to die because you execute badly than get crushed by a competitor.
When lack of structure fails, it fails all at once. What works totally fine from 0-20 employees, is disastrous at 30.
At YC we have this public phrase, and it's relentlessly resourceful.
To get the very best people- they have a lot of great options, and so it can easily take a year to recruit someone.
Another way of looking at this, is that the best companies are almost always mission oriented.
Execution gets divided into two key questions: 1) can you figure out what to do and 2) can you get it done.
One thing I tell startups all the time is that the best way to grow is to make their product better.
In general, it's best if you're building something that you yourself need.
Mediocre founders spend a lot of time talking about grand plans, but they never quite make a decision.
Someday, you need to build a business that's difficult to replicate. This is an important part of a good idea.
You can create value with breakthrough innovation, incremental refinement, or complex coordination. Great companies often do two of these. The very best companies do all three.
At the beginning, you should only hire when you have a desperate need to.
If it takes more than a sentence to explain what you are doing, it's almost always a sign that what you are doing is too complicated.
More important than starting any startup, is getting to know a lot of potential co-founders.
Obsess about the quality of the product.
A lot of people treat choosing their cofounder with even less importance than they put on hiring. Don't do this.
I believe in fighting with investors to reduce the amount of equity they get and then being as generous as you possibly can with employees.
It really is true that you become an average of the people you spend the most time with.
No growth hack, brilliant marketing idea, or sales team can save you long term if you don't have a sufficiently good product.
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