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Paul Graham’s Checklist, Would You Make The Cut?

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Re: Paul Graham’s Checklist, Would You Make The Cut?

#31

Post by lelele »

jacquesm wrote: post #21

There is actually a really good reason not to start a start-up with friends, you might find that your friendship is the victim of either the success or the failure of your start-up.

So what? You may just discover that your friendship isn't that strong. If it is, it will endure and grow, whether your business succeeds or fails.

I wonder why people are so afraid to put their relationships on trial. An old adage says that you should not trust a friend of yours until you have tested it.

Re: Paul Graham’s Checklist, Would You Make The Cut?

#32

Post by kristiandupont »

lelele wrote: post #31
jacquesm wrote: post #21

There is actually a really good reason not to start a start-up with friends, you might find that your friendship is the victim of either the success or the failure of your start-up.

So what? You may just discover that your friendship isn't that strong. If it is, it will endure and grow, whether your business succeeds or fails. I wonder why people are so afraid to put their relationships on trial. An old adage says that you should not trust a friend of yours until you have tested it.

A friendship may still be valuable even if it isn't fit for a startup.

Re: Paul Graham’s Checklist, Would You Make The Cut?

#33

Post by sage_joch »

patrickk wrote: post #22
sage_joch wrote: post #17

I think he misinterpreted the Twitter question. She seemed to be asking whether he would reject a group with an idea as compelling as Twitter if the founders didn't have the right personalities.

"an idea as compelling as Twitter" - proof that something is a great idea like Twitter only becomes obvious in retrospect. If you heard a description of Twitter just before it launched, you probably wouldn't think it would work (or wouldn't know one way or the other). Hence the importance of the founding team and how well they execute the idea.

Well sure, that might be a good answer. Another good answer might be, "the execution is more important than the idea." I was just pointing out that he misinterpreted the question.

Re: Paul Graham’s Checklist, Would You Make The Cut?

#34

Post by Samuel_Michon »

HNer wrote: post #11
HNer wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This does not convey the sentiment that Paul expressed. I took away : friends will work on a project through the bad times out of loyalty (which happens to be a good thing), while co founders who were not friends will bail at the point when the walls come crashing down.

Samuel_Michon, That's what I said... (almost) since you misstated one of the points 'if for no other reason than the co founders like working with each other' when PG actually said they will continue to work out of loyalty and not wanting to let their friend down.

Didn't mean to criticize you. I personally found it quite enlightening to hear Graham say that every startup will eventually go through a tough phase, whether or not the business has any chance of making it -- I felt that little nugget of truth needed some attention.

Everything else I said in that post were my own words, especially the reasoning on why good friends stick it out. I find it kind of negative to simply put it on guilt -- I choose to believe that good friends work together and help each other out because they like each other, not because of fear of losing a friendship.

Re: Paul Graham’s Checklist, Would You Make The Cut?

#35

Post by rphlx »

HNer wrote: post #3
fizx wrote: post #2

Anyone else not want to watch a video to see a checklist? Anyone kind enough to paste notes?

Evelyn Rusli is the best interviewer TC has and is enjoyable to watch.

IMO it sounded like she was bored/dismissive during most of his replies. Like she'd rather be interviewing an NBA star or something and just wanted to get this shit over with.

Re: Paul Graham’s Checklist, Would You Make The Cut?

#36

Post by jacquesm »

lelele wrote: post #31
jacquesm wrote: post #21

There is actually a really good reason not to start a start-up with friends, you might find that your friendship is the victim of either the success or the failure of your start-up.

So what? You may just discover that your friendship isn't that strong. If it is, it will endure and grow, whether your business succeeds or fails. I wonder why people are so afraid to put their relationships on trial. An old adage says that you should not trust a friend of yours until you have tested it.

You may discover that your friendship is that strong and that you find it awfully hard to have 'the talk' with your friend and as a result your company eventually founders. Or you might find that your friendship was plenty strong but not strong enough to survive the kind of hardships that a start-up can throw at it. And a whole pile of variations on those themes.

It's not nearly as simple as you make it out to be.

Re: Paul Graham’s Checklist, Would You Make The Cut?

#37

Post by lelele »

kristiandupont wrote: post #32
lelele wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what? You may just discover that your friendship isn't that strong. If it is, it will endure and grow, whether your business succeeds or fails. I wonder why people are so afraid to put their relationships on trial. An old adage says that you should not trust a friend of yours until you have tested it.

A friendship may still be valuable even if it isn't fit for a startup.

That's fine. Being friends does not mean being fit to work together.

Re: Paul Graham’s Checklist, Would You Make The Cut?

#38

Post by matwood »

akkartik wrote: post #30
zackattack wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but it's nothing that we haven't heard before. Every startup faces moments of uncertainty and the feeling of impending doom, and founders that know each other are more likely to stick through hard times due to the pair bond. See, if the only thing holding two people together is the potential success of the startup, they're more likely to jump ship when the going gets tough. If the founders are friends, they'll…

Yeah, we've heard this from day 1. What was interesting to me was to hear PG say that even they underestimated how important the people are compared to the initial idea. Compared to the first batches he said the application form now has a lot more questions about the people, and a lot fewer about what they plan to do.

I think anyone who is in the HN environment has already realized that the people and, likely more importantly, the ability to execute* is the #1 secret in a successful startup. People outside the HN circle don't understand this though. I have friends who are still looking for that perfect idea and then they'll start working on something on the side. I just don't see it working that way, instead you keep working on the side until you morph whatever you have into that perfect idea.

*Execution really is king, but is greatly helped by being smart and fast. Basically if you have all three you can take a whim idea do it quickly and see 'what if.' The faster that someone can iterate through that process the more chances they can give themselves at finding a good business.

Re: Paul Graham’s Checklist, Would You Make The Cut?

#39

Post by pg »

chegra wrote: post #16

hmm... I don't think as an entrepreneur we should seek to optimize these metrics. These rules are ideal for Paul since they reduces his risk for investing, which is necessary as a prudent investor. Y-Combinator would be over the moon if 6 out of ten start-ups were successful. If you were one of those 4 who didn't make it, it would be devastating for you. Ultimately as the entrepreneur your rules should be gear toward…

This isn't my entire checklist. The interview wasn't even about checklists. They just stuck that word in the title to get traffic. If you describe something as a checklist, then everyone wants to see what it is to see if they're missing anything. Much like the list-of-n-things.

This is probably closer to what you want: http://paulgraham.com/13sentences.html

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