Paul Graham — Essays on WeSearch

The High-Res Society

Could VC be a Casualty of the Recession?

After Credentials

Keep Your Identity Small

Startups in 13 Sentences

February 2009One of the things I always tell startups is a principle I learned from Paul Buchheit: it's better to make…

What I've Learned from Hacker News

Can You Buy a Silicon Valley? Maybe.

Why TV Lost

How to Be an Angel Investor

Relentlessly Resourceful

March 2009A couple days ago I finally got being a good startup founder down to two words: relentlessly…

Five Founders

The Founder Visa

Why Twitter is a Big Deal

A Local Revolution?

Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule

"...the mere consciousness of an engagement will sometimes worry a whole day."� Charles Dickens July 2009One reason…

Ramen Profitable

July 2009Now that the term "ramen profitable" has become widespread, I ought to explain precisely what the idea…

The Trouble with the Segway

What Kate Saw in Silicon Valley

The Anatomy of Determination

September 2009Like all investors, we spend a lot of time trying to learn how to predict which startups will succeed.…

The List of N Things

Post-Medium Publishing

Persuade xor Discover

What Startups Are Really Like

October 2009(This essay is derived from a talk at the 2009 Startup School.)I wasn't sure what to talk about at Startup…

Apple's Mistake

November 2009I don't think Apple realizes how badly the App Store approval process is broken. Or rather, I don't think…

Organic Startup Ideas

April 2010The best way to come up with startup ideas is to ask yourself the question: what do you wish someone would…

How to Lose Time and Money

The Top Idea in Your Mind

July 2010I realized recently that what one thinks about in the shower in the morning is more important than I'd…

The Acceleration of Addictiveness

The Future of Startup Funding

August 2010Two years ago I wrote about what I called "a huge, unexploited opportunity in startup funding:" the growing…

What Happened to Yahoo

August 2010When I went to work for Yahoo after they bought our startup in 1998, it felt like the center of the world.…

High Resolution Fundraising

September 2010The reason startups have been using more convertible notes in angel rounds is that they make deals close…

Where to See Silicon Valley

October 2010Silicon Valley proper is mostly suburban sprawl. At first glance it doesn't seem there's anything to see.…

The New Funding Landscape

October 2010After barely changing at all for decades, the startup funding business is now in what could, at least by…

What We Look for in Founders

October 2010 (I wrote this for Forbes, who asked me to write something about the qualities we look for in founders. In…

Tablets

Founder Control

December 2010Someone we funded is talking to VCs now, and asked me how common it was for a startup's founders to…

Subject: Airbnb

The Patent Pledge

Why Startup Hubs Work

October 2011If you look at a list of US cities sorted by population, the number of successful startups per capita…

Snapshot: Viaweb, June 1998

Schlep Blindness

January 2012There are great startup ideas lying around unexploited right under our noses. One reason we don't see them…

A Word to the Resourceful

Y Combinator identified that the least successful startups were difficult to communicate with, while the most…

Frighteningly Ambitious Startup Ideas

March 2012One of the more surprising things I've noticed while working on Y Combinator is how frightening the most…

Defining Property

How Y Combinator Started

March 2012Y Combinator's 7th birthday was March 11. As usual we were so busy we didn't notice till a few days after. I…

Writing and Speaking

The Top of My Todo List

Black Swan Farming

The total value of the companies we've funded is around 10 billion, give or take a few. But just two companies,…

Startup = Growth

September 2012A startup is a company designed to grow fast. Being newly founded does not in itself make a company a…

The Hardware Renaissance

October 2012One advantage of Y Combinator's early, broad focus is that we see trends before most other people. And one…