AI Supercharges Growth for Diligent Startup Founders
AI is giving a lot of hard-working founders the growth they deserve. Every couple days I hear about another startup that was working hard and doing ok but not great but has now had its growth accelerated by AI.
Progress: More Forward Steps Than Backward, Over Time
Something I taught 14 yo: Most progress is a mix of steps forward and steps back, just with with more of the former. But you can get a run of steps back. So to judge progress accurately you need to...
Self‑portraits Always Keep Glasses on, Unlike Others
Self-portrait by Joshua Reynolds, 1780s. Other sitters can take their glasses off, but sitters in self-portraits can't. https://t.co/RAmCnr2OVz
Dirty Watch Movements Reveal Simple Fixes; Clean Means Structural Issues
A watchmaker told me that he prefers it when he opens a watch that needs service and the movement is dirty. If the movement is clean, it's more likely the problem is structural.
Skip High School Startups to Preserve Curious Exploration
Don't start a startup in high school. What if it works? You'll lose the opportunity you'd otherwise have to explore random, interesting ideas, driven only by curiosity. Because while you will indeed learn a lot from a startup, you won't...
Isolation Blinds Founder to Her Own Success
A British founder I funded is doing everything right, but she doesn't realize it. She lives in the country and doesn't know any other founders, so she's never seen startups done wrong.
Soviet Gift Great Seal Harbored Theremin‑Made Passive
TIL the USSR concealed a bug in a hand-carved Great Seal given as a "gift" in 1945 to the US ambassador that was only discovered by accident in 1951. The bug was designed by Theremin (!) and had no power...
Founders Need Player‑coach Partners Who Build Alongside Them
How can you empathize with founders if you don't build stuff yourself? This was one advantage of running HN while I was running YC. It was an enormous schlep, but it meant I was dealing daily with the same problems as...
Demo Day Revenue Targets Jump From $150K to $1M
Later stage investors always grumble about increasing valuations. But there is some basis in reality for it: companies do grow faster now.
Clarifying: Sam Wasn't Fired over Partner Distrust
Since there's yet another article claiming that we "removed" Sam because partners distrusted him, no, we didn't. It's not because I want to defend Sam that I keep insisting on this. It's because it's so annoying to read false accounts...
AI Replies Are Unnaturally Punchy, Revealing Fake Content
Sadly, one way I now recognize fake AI-generated replies is that AIs write punchier sentences than most ordinary humans.
Jessica's Life Story Forged the Traits Behind YC Success
This interview with Jessica goes the deepest of any interview she's done into her life story, and how it gave her the unique combination of qualities that made Y Combinator work.
Too Many AI Spam Replies; Switching to Mute
I now get so many AI-generated replies that it's just too much work to report them for spam and block them, so I'm downshifting to muting.
VCs Fund Performance, Not Just Thesis Alignment
The thing that will make a VC want to fund you is not how well you match their (claimed) investment thesis. It's the same thing that will make every other VC want to fund you: how well you're doing.
Audemars Piguet 2003 Movement Sits Between Penny and Nickel
The Audemars Piguet 2003 movement has a volume of .56 cm³, exactly mid-way between a penny (.43 cm³) and a nickel (.69 cm³). https://t.co/xfL2ffv61l
