Ask HN: is it about the product or the founders?

4 pointsstartupdream3 comments

I saw one of paul grahams videos and he says the most important thing in a startup is the product, but on the application and the essays it claims that the founders are the most important thing, so which one is it when applying for YC?

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The founders are the foundation of the house. The product is the house. While the product (in the broader sense, including e.g. customer support) is ultimately what's going to make money, you won't get a good product without good founders.

Since we see startups so early, it's rarely a choice for us of founders vs products, but rather founders vs ideas for products. Between those two, founders are the more important.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w3ctErsxog - If you want to hear PG discuss exactly this.

There's a video by founder of Sequoia Capital, saying that market is even more important than both the founders and the product, i.e. best product + best team will still fail if there isn't a market

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