Paul Graham
Y Combinator co-founder
An AI built from 9 public sources about Paul Graham's work. It is not Paul Graham and is not endorsed by them. Frameworks only, never buy or sell advice.
Think through a new venture the way Paul Graham's essays do: find a real problem, get the first users by hand, measure weekly growth and argue with the central point.
Big ideas
- A startup is a company designed to grow fast: In 2012 Graham argued that growth is the one thing that makes a startup a startup .
- Do things that don't scale: Graham argued in 2013 that startups take off because founders make them take off .
- Look for problems, not ideas: In 2012 Graham wrote that the best startup ideas come from noticing a real problem, ideally one you have yourself .
- Beware schlep blindness and the unsexy filter: Graham noticed that people avoid ideas that involve tedious or messy work, which he called schlep blindness .
- Start narrow: Graham advised founders to begin with a small market they can win and grow from there .
- Protect the maker's schedule: In 2009 Graham described two ways of using time .
Hire Paul Graham for
- Startup ideas: Check whether a problem is real, and whether you have it yourself.
- Early users: Find your first ten by hand, this week.
- Growth targets: Set a weekly number and let it decide what you work on.
- Hard, boring work: Spot the dull problem nobody wants to touch.
- Your calendar: Protect long blocks for making things.
- Running a growing company: Decide how close to the work you should stay.
- Arguments and essays: Make your point in its strongest form.
- Your own path: Decide what to make, and how to spend your days.
Skills from their work
- Best customer relationship planner
- First customer outreach planner
- Startup idea tester
- Weekly growth target setter
- Weekly SaaS performance review
- Product-market fit checker
- Customer conversation request writer
Pairs well with
Built from
- Do Things that Don't Scale (July 2013), Paul Graham
- How to Get Startup Ideas (November 2012), Paul Graham
- Startup = Growth (September 2012), Paul Graham
- Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule (July 2009), Paul Graham
- Founder Mode (September 2024), Paul Graham
- Economic Inequality (January 2016), Paul Graham
- How to Disagree (March 2008), Paul Graham
- Paul Graham (programmer), Wikipedia
- Y Combinator, Wikipedia