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The most common post YC failure case for the companies we fund, is they're incredibly focussed during YC on their company... and after they start doing a lot of other things. They advise companies, they go to conferences, whatever.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Common
Incredibly
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Companies
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More quotes by Sam Altman

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... you want to be proud of how much you can get done with a small numbers of employees.
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You can basically change everything in a startup but the market.
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Growth solves (nearly) all problems
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Companies that I've been very involved with, that have had a very bad first hire in the first 3 or so employees never recover from it.
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... fire fast when it's not working. It's better for the company, it's also better for the employee.
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The way to have a company that executes well is you have to execute well yourself.
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The cost of getting an early hire wrong is really high.
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Because so few people make an actual long term commitment to what they're building, the ones that do have a huge advantage.
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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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One thing that founders always underestimate is how hard it is to recruit.
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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.
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... the thing we see wrong with YC apps most frequently, is that people have not thought about the market first and what people want first.
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... but the pendulum has swung way out of whack here. A bad idea is still bad, and the pivot happy world we're in today feels suboptimal.
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So you should always stay on top of people's vesting schedules.
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One of the biggest advantages that start ups have is execution speed and you have to have this relentless operating rhythm.
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Most things are not as risky as they seem.
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A board member of mine used to say sales fix everything in a startup, and that is really true.
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Unfortunately the trick to great execution is to say no a lot.
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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.
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