Detect AI-Generated Spam Replies Before Responding
Now before I reply to someone I have to check first that I'm not being baited by an account that spams everyone with AI-generated replies. Can you write some software to do this check for me @nikitabier?
AI Bullet Lists Reveal Readers' Dwindling Attention Spans
The fact that AIs tend to answer you in bulleted lists tells us something important, though somewhat depressing: people can't read. They don't do this by accident. What you're seeing is an implicit portrait of the median user.
YC Board Majority Defends Garry Amid External Criticism
Some people criticize Garry, but this excerpt from the latest Social Radars episode is a good example of how insiders feel about how he's doing. The 3 of us in this conversation are 3/5 of YC's board.
Measure Growth Rate, Not Raw Numbers; Flat Is Success
If you really want to hold yourself to a high standard, graph the growth rate of the number you care about instead of the number itself. Then you're winning if you can even keep it flat.
Use YC‑style ‘Vertebrae’ for Stronger Demo Day Pitches
I'm glad she chose this excerpt about how to make a convincing Demo Day presentation. Founders would be so much more effective at fundraising if they gave their pitches YC-style "vertebrae".
Growth Rate Focus Reveals Early Signals for Product Switch
Another advantage of focusing on growth rate rather than absolute numbers is that it makes it easier to switch to a new variant of the product if you discover one. It makes it easier to see tails that will eventually...
Found an Unexpected Ellipse Pocket Watch at Subdial
I went to visit Subdial in London. Cool place with some good watches. I bought something so strange that till I saw it I'd never have believed it existed: an Ellipse pocket watch. I kid you not. https://t.co/L7rptQn61v
Your Resume Doesn't Matter—Product Wins in Startups
Someone asked if it's a good idea to start a startup when you have nothing notable on your resume. Absolutely. All that matters in a startup is whether users like the product, and users don't care (either way) what's on...
Lucky Access to DeepMind Yields Inside AI Revolution
This sounds like a promising book. Mallaby is a sharp observer, and sharpness + access tends to yield insights.
European Auction Sites Demand Absurdly Many Verification Steps
Creating an account on a European auction site is so hard that sometimes I keep going just to see if it's actually possible. The Druot account I just created required four separate confirmation codes. But that was easy compared to...
Vintage Vibes: Shinagawa’s Print Feels Like a 1958 Postcard
Sometimes it's pleasing when art is dated. This print by Takumi Shinagawa is like a getting a postcard from 1958. https://t.co/1LZaRne3rI
Churn Reveals Product Disapproval, Stalling Growth
Churn is the worst reason to have slow growth. Churn means you're not just unknown, or that there's a big threshold to sign up. It means people are actually trying the product and deciding they don't like it.
Replit’s New Tools Will Redefine Vibe Coding
Amjad showed me Replit's latest stuff. They're about to redefine vibe coding in a way that will seem obvious in retrospect. A lot of the biggest ideas have that quality.
Modern Treasury: Stripe‑style API for Corporate Cash Flows
This is a big deal. It's like Stripe but for moving money in and out of companies. You just call the API and Modern Treasury does the rest.
YC Mentors Founders for a Decade, Not Just Launch
One of the things that surprised me about YC is how long we continue to advise founders. We thought we'd just help them get started and then hand them over to later stage investors, but in fact we're still talking...
Slow Growth, Faster Spending: Hire Aggressively
I did office hours with a startup yesterday that I ended up advising to (a) decrease their growth rate and (b) spend the money they've raised faster by hiring more people and paying them high salaries. Possibly the first time...
Only Heed Advice that Could Later Haunt You
In the process of giving advice to a startup whose domain I know very little about, I came up with a useful form of qualification: only listen to this advice if you can imagine scenarios where this email comes back...
Companies Either Create What They Love or Exploit Customers
The most important division between companies is between those who make things they themselves admire, and those who regard their customers as fools, and cynically give them what they want. Companies sometimes shift from the former to the latter, but...
Wealth Isn’t Exclusive to Entrepreneurs—Founders Just Have More Leverage
Saying that only entrepreneurs generate wealth is as mistaken as saying that only workers do. In fact founders, managers, employees, and individual craftsmen can all generate wealth. Founders do have the most leverage though.
Successful Startups Act, Others Stay Stuck in Denial
Few startups have a smooth ascent. Many if not most have some setbacks initially. The good ones react by focusing on specific steps they can take. The bad ones are vaguely hopeful, or depressed, or in denial — and change...
Founders Fail When They Skip Understanding Market Needs
"Make something people want" sounds obvious, but not doing it is the most common mistake founders make. I explained why I made it in the essay where I coined the term. I didn't understand the market I was building for,...
Competitor's Domain Grab Reveals Fear and Amateurism
A startup told me a highly-funded competitor bought the .com of their name. I told them this is good news in a way. It means the competitor is (a) amateurish and (b) afraid of them, both of which suggest the...
Corp Dev Reads Desperation, Not Talent or Tech
Founders in trouble are often dismayed by how fast corp dev people can sense their desperation. You'll be less surprised if you remember this is all they *can* sense. They can't judge technology or talent. All they can judge is...
Relying on a Better Filter Improves My Decisions
I'm not a great judge of character, but fortunately my mistakes are nearly all in the same direction (accepting the bad rather than rejecting the good). So all I need is a second pass by someone with a tighter filter,...
Investors Will Dilute to Join YC for Mutual Gain
If you want proof of what a good deal YC is for founders, I just told a UK startup I've invested several million pounds in that I'd be happy if they wanted to do YC. I'd get diluted alongside them,...
Prioritize Startups Now; Future Cohorts Secure Growth
As long as all newly founded startups prefer your product, don't worry about competitors who can convince larger customers. You'll own all future cohorts of companies, and that's more than enough. Plus in practice you'll eventually convert the old cohorts...
Selling to Startups Beats Investor‑Favored Big‑Company Deals
A startup told me that one of their investors didn't like it that they were selling to newly founded startups, and wanted them to sell to bigger companies, who have more money. If investors tell you this, write them off...
Describe Startups with Verbs, Not Nouns, for Clarity
When describing a startup it's usually better to use verbs rather than nouns. Say what you do rather than what you are. Not because it sounds more dynamic, but simply because it's clearer.
Money only Threatens You when It Buys All Ads
Don't fear competitors who've raised a lot, unless you can say precisely how all that extra money is going to make them beat you. E.g. if ads are the only way to acquire users, and they can buy all the...
Startup Rebounds: From Stalled Growth to Resurgence
A year of smoothly exponential growth, and then suddenly it stops working. That has to be demoralizing. But the startup toughs it out, and five months later growth is back. https://t.co/tQM44KNJXY
Fund Startup Ops with Bond Interest, Not Dilution
I talked to a startup today that had been forced to take so much from investors and whose expenses were so low that they could put the money in bonds and fund their operations off the interest. I told them...
Fundraising Slumps No Longer Mean Failure
I met with a startup in the current batch who seemed demoralized because fundraising was going badly. Later I learned they'd already raised a million dollars. Fundraising going badly is not what it used to be.
Investors Overlook That This Work Already Feels Automated
I was talking recently to a startup using AI to take over a certain kind of work. Apparently investors are skeptical that AI could do it. I told them they should point out that most of this work already seems...
Compressing Data for LLMs Equals Understanding and Innovation
I talked to a startup yesterday that had been forced to compress certain information to fit it into an LLM context window. But compression is understanding, and in the compressed form the information could be used for other, new things.
Startup Founders Trace Multi‑generational Tech Company Lineage
I met a startup today whose founders had previously worked at Coinbase and Scale. And Brian Armstrong of Coinbase had himself worked at Airbnb. I bet 3 "generations" is not the record though. Anyone know of a longer chain?
AI Multiplies Startup Productivity, Saving Ten Hires
I talked to a startup that's not a software company but uses AI quite a lot. They currently have 6 employees. I asked how many more people they'd need to hire if they didn't use AI, and they said about...
Founders Prioritize Safer Pesticides for Farmers From Day One
One of the things I love about these founders is how genuinely committed they are to discovering pesticides that are safer for farmers. Startups often talk about making the world better, but I can tell you this was their concern...
Migrate only for Concrete Needs, Not Trendy Buzzwords
Ouch. If this is your list of reasons for doing something, don't do it. "Why we migrated: - New investor wanted 'cloud-native' - Engineers wanted K8s experience - Competitors were using it - Seemed like the future"
Accelerator Overload Floods Me with Spam Offers
There are now so many "accelerators" that I get spam from people making products for them. Very weird. I wrote all YC's original software, so every spam is either offering something I wrote, or something I didn't think was worth...
Smart Investors Weight Outcomes, Chase Big Wins over Many Misses
The reason (good) investors are more optimistic is that, for them, the outcomes are weighted. If you're just measuring percent correct, you win by predicting startups will fail. But if the outcomes are weighted, you look for big wins even...
Limited AI Still Fuels Revolutionary Momentum, Like Beam Engines
Prediction: LLMs in their current form may not be able to do everything, but AI now has enough momentum that this won't matter. Beam engines couldn't do everything either, but they were enough to set off the Industrial Revolution.
Originality Gives Innovators Edge Over Mere Copycats
It's easier to innovate when you're the original of something. People copying you can only copy a snapshot of your current state. They don't know which aspects of the snapshot are essential and which are random things you'd been about...
Top Startups Hoard Cash, Rarely Spend Raised Funds
This is common among the most successful startups. It may seem wasteful, but it's a good idea to have some extra money in the bank as insurance against disasters, and the most successful startups have that luxury.
Good Cofounder Beats Solo, Bad Cofounder Hurts
Good cofounder > no cofounder > bad cofounder. This may seem obvious but a lot of people don't seem to grasp it.
