What is your favorite Paul Graham quote?

Johannes Grenzemann
32 replies
Mine is: Build sth. 100 people love, not something 1mio people kind of like!

Replies

Alexey Shashkov
Mine are: "Make something people want" and "Do Things that Don't Scale".
Alexey Shashkov
@jgrenzemann Yeah. It's a powerful qoute!
Johannes Grenzemann
@shashcoffe Yeah, I also live "do things that don't scale". Thinkings about that always helps me coming up with crazy & interesting ideas...
David J. Kim
@shashcoffe Haven't heard that one before. I do like it a lot!
Daniel Baum
@between_team @shashcoffe @jgrenzemann Doing things that don't scale is a classic startup mantra, but I've always found you have to be careful not to incur too much tech debt - if your product is the tech, it better work as you scale! The user aquisition and process doesn't have to scale at the start
David J. Kim
@shashcoffe @jgrenzemann @daniel_baum That's definitely true. In the tech side if you hardcode/scrap together everything you won't be prepared for growth.
Mouna Selmi
Mine is: Work with people you genuinely like & respect, and that you have known long enough to be sure.
Johannes Grenzemann
@mouna_selmi True, true. Founding a startup is like climbing the everest. In such an adventure you want to have folks around that you can trust/rely on - even when things get nasty and the relationships gets under pressure.
Karl Rinderknecht
"What I tell founders is not to sweat the business model too much at first. The most important task at first is to build something people want. If you don't do that, it won't matter how clever your business model is."
Johannes Grenzemann
@_karlr I also like the shortform of this "build something people want", whereas this is easier said than done...
Cory Crapes
Here's my favorite of his. “The main reason nerds are unpopular is that they have other things to think about.”
Johannes Grenzemann
@cory_crapes cool, thx. I did'nt know that one :)
Daniel Baum
@cory_crapes Hahah that's an awesome quote - classic
Boma Josiah
Mine has to be — do things that don't scale.
María del Carmen GARCÍA NIETO
For me: "The word 'try' is an especially valuable component. I disagree here with Yoda, who said there is no try. There is try. It implies there's no punishment if you fail. You're driven by curiosity instead of duty".
Johannes Grenzemann
@maria_del_carmen_garcia_nieto I agree - for me this equals to "experiment"
Inna Proshkina
"It's better to make a few people really happy than to make a lot of people semi-happy"
Johannes Grenzemann
@inna_proshkina sounds like a variant of "Build sth. 100 people love, not something 1mio people kind of like!"
Sean
I see a lot of my favorites already listed; a thoughtful concept I learned was "High Resolution Funding"
Daniel Baum
~not a quote ~ His essay on "Shlep Blindness" is really impactful for those trying to start a company
Rolf Mulder
https://twitter.com/paulg/status... - where he quoted me ;-). Was kind of awesome to be noticed by someone you have been reading and following for years.