Show HN: Grade your growth rate using Paul Graham's two-number math
Paul Graham's growth test is a method for evaluating a startup's potential for growth, focusing on two key numbers: growth rate and duration. The test measures a startup's compound monthly growth rate and compares it to a 15% per month benchmark. By using this test, startups can assess their growth trajectory and identify areas for improvement to reach a billion-dollar revenue run rate.
- ▪Paul Graham's growth test evaluates a startup's growth rate and duration to determine its potential for success.
- ▪The test uses a 15% per month growth rate benchmark to measure a startup's compound monthly growth rate.
- ▪Startups can use the test to identify areas for improvement and create a plan to reach a billion-dollar revenue run rate.
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Record
| Original publisher | Brutal Audit |
| Canonical URL | https://www.brutal-audit.com/growth |
| Publication time | Sun, 14 Jun 2026 22:58:43 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-06-14T23:07:33.529Z |
| Last seen | 2026-06-14T23:07:33.529Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | axtAuahkSsUl |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
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| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
The Paul Graham growth testAre you on a billion-dollar growth curve?Paul Graham says a startup comes down to two numbers: your growth rate and how long it lasts. Answer a few questions and we measure both, honestly, against his 15%-a-month bar.1Connect your LLM GatewayBring your own key. We run the analysis on your model of choice.LLM Gateway API keyDon't have one? Sign up free at llmgateway.io. Verify key2Answer a few questions about your businessThe only required input is your monthly revenue. Everything else sharpens the read.The frameworkTwo numbers, per Paul GrahamIn his talk How to Earn a Billion Dollars, Paul Graham argues a startup's outcome comes down to just two numbers: its growth rate, and how long that growth lasts.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Brutal Audit.
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