Mikel Berger

« The long tail of software. Millions of Markets of Dozens. | Main | Bayesian filter for ham »

March 24, 2005

Paul Graham on Startups

An interesting article by Paul Graham about startups

http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html

A few select quotes.

So as a rule you can recognize genuinely smart people by their ability to say things like "I don't know," "Maybe you're right," and "I don't understand x well enough."

It's no coincidence that startups start around universities, because that's where smart people meet. It's not what people learn in classes at MIT and Stanford that has made technology companies spring up around them. They could sing campfire songs in the classes so long as admissions worked the same.

And what I discovered was that business was no great mystery. It's not something like physics or medicine that requires extensive study. You just try to get people to pay you for stuff.

In a startup, your initial plans are almost certain to be wrong in some way, and your first priority should be to figure out where. The only way to do that is to try implementing them.

I'd really only disagree with the following quote and the section on getting investing.

I think it's wise to take money from investors. To be self-funding, you have to start as a consulting company, and it's hard to switch from that to a product company.

I wouldn't want to take money from VCs or Angels because they will eventually shape the way your company is run. I would agree with Paul you need to keep the number of founders small and taking on someone just for money isn't a good idea. Right now we're fighting the balance between consulting and products. But that's the good part about consulting contracts, they eventually end.

An apartment is also the right kind of place for developing software. Cube farms suck for that, as you've probably discovered if you've tried it. Ever notice how much easier it is to hack at home than at work? So why not make work more like home?

When you're looking for space for a startup, don't feel that it has to look professional. Professional means doing good work, not elevators and glass walls. I'd advise most startups to avoid corporate space at first and just rent an apartment. You want to live at the office in a startup, so why not have a place designed to be lived in as your office?

Posted by mikel at March 24, 2005 12:55 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://WWW.mjberger.COM/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/133

Comments

Post a comment