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Comment by davesque | Hacker News Reader

I think I've really gotten into the habit of disagreeing with Paul Graham's blogs lately but this one felt different. Felt like a lot of practical, common sense advice that is just barely beyond the horizon that most people consider. Of course, it won't apply in every situation but it felt hard to disagree with the overall sentiment.

Note: I say I've been disagreeing with him lately and, of course, this blog wasn't written "lately." So maybe that says something.

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Yep, this one is on the shortlist of YC advice that's useful to founders.

The list:

  - Launch now
  - Build something people want
  - Do things that don't scale
  - Find the 90 / 10 solution
  - Find 10-100 customers who love your product
  - All startups are badly broken at some point
  - Write code - talk to users
  - "It’s not your money"
  - Growth is the result of a great product not the precursor
  - Don’t scale your team/product until you have built something people want
  - Valuation is not equal to success or even probability of success
  - Avoid long negotiated deals with big customers if you can
  - Avoid big company corporate development queries - they will only waste time
  - Avoid conferences unless they are the best way to get customers
  - Pre-product market fit - do things that don’t scale: remain small/nimble
  - Startups can only solve one problem well at any given time
  - Founder relationships matter more than you think
  - Sometimes you need to fire your customers (they might be killing you)
  - Ignore your competitors, you will more likely die of suicide than murder
  - Most companies don't die because they run out of money
  - Be nice! Or at least don’t be a jerk
  - Get sleep and exercise - take care of yourself

Is there a page this comes from?

https://www.ycombinator.com/library/4D-yc-s-essential-startu...

This was _precisely_ my reaction. "Life Is Short"[0] remains a great piece that I return to time-and-again, but most of his other stuff that I've read recently seems to miss the mark - unlike this one.

[0] http://www.paulgraham.com/vb.html

This is a good one. I can immediately identify many "bullshits" in work and life. But I then realize that the key is that I need to have something to be passionate in so that those time saved from bullshits can be used on them.

I’ll disagree then because Corp Dev, like most tags, can mean something else like a group at a corporation responsible for strategic decisions to grow and restructure its business, establish strategic partnerships, and/or achieve organizational excellence.

No, he's right on this one. Corporate Development means "the group in charge of acquiring companies." I have never seen a Corp Dev team that did anything else (and I have dealt with quite a few including my company's acquisition).

The only reason Corp Dev is establishing a partnership is because they want to buy you but they aren't sure yet, so it's like a trial. It's also a good way to convince you to sell to them while also locking out competitors.

If you have a partnership with Google, it makes a lot harder for Amazon to buy you because first they have to unwind the partnership.

Re that last para. Amazon and Google could choose to share the pie: it's want to, not have to, surely?

It was just a contrived example. Imagine instead you have a partnership with Amazon and then Walmart wants to buy you. Both companies have made it clear they will never work with each other.

Either way, every deal, every partnership, every contract, complicates an acquisition. The fewer you have the more likely a deal is. By establishing a relationship, one company can discourage others from wanting to put in the effort of acquiring you.

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