Most cited
Posts that commenters keep linking to, ranked by how many different people have cited them in Hacker News comments. 337 posts.
LinkedIn's Series B Pitch to Greylock: Pitch Advice for Entrepreneurs
At Greylock, my partners and I are driven by one guiding mission: always help entrepreneurs. It doesn’t matter whether an entrepreneur is in our portfolio, whether we’re considering an investment, or whether we’re casually meeting for the first time.
The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur (2009)
The Kauffman Foundation continues to recognize, with urgency, the significance of the role new and existing businesses play in local, regional, and the national economy. This report continues our series of sharing the state of capital access for entrepreneurs highlighting the need for innovative products and models to…
Is My Startup Burn Rate Normal?
Self-examination for Seed and Series A startups
The idea maze
programming, philosophy, history, internet, startups
The Next Feature Fallacy
A few weeks ago, I read this tweet, and found myself nodding my head in vigorous agreement.
Minsky Moments in Venture Capital
Markets rise, and markets fall. This much, at least, is well-known. But why do market cycles occur? What causes the pendulum to swing from euphoria to crisis and back? Hyman Minsky was a 20th-century economist whose ‘financial instability hypothesis’ is probably the best-known explanation for the boom and bust cycles…
DHH vs. Calacanis on This Week in Startups
An intense debate about business models, bubbles, capitalism, quality of life, market share vs. profit share, running a business vs. selling a business, and a variety of other related topics from episode 46 of This Week in Startups. This is really good stuff. (There’s 47 minutes of mater…
Square Drops Per Transaction Fee
Get one plan to run any type of business with no hidden fees or locked-in contracts. Cancel or switch plans anytime.
Paul Graham interview on Econtalk - Start-ups, Innovation, and Creativity
Paul Graham, essayist, programmer and partner in the y-combinator talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about start-ups, innovation, and creativity. Graham draws on his experience as entrepreneur and investor to discuss the current state of the start-up world and how that world has changed due to improved technology…
The Dentist Office Software Story
I’ve been telling this fictional story about Dentist Office Software for years to describe why we are so focused on our “networks” investment strategy. Yesterday I told it at a HackNY event we did at the USV office and my partner Albert provided a finishing touch that really drives it home. Since I’ve never told […]
“Startup Names” by Paul Graham (2006)
[This was originally published on the now-defunct Infogami and was surprisingly hard to find online, so I put it here. I’ve added commentary, with our now internet-decades of hindsight, in brackets. I’ve also summarized the names mentioned (and alluded to) along 7 dimensions: Evocativity, Brevity, Greppability…
A Minimum Viable Product Is Not a Product, It’s a Process
Read more on Y Combinator's blog.
Starting a Business Around GPT-3 Is a Bad Idea
(Update 2023-03: I wrote this in 2020 when GPT-3 was highly hyped, but ultimately made only <1% of the splash that the monstrous ChatGPT made 3 years later. If I had to rewrite this today, I’d 1) think more kindly about defensibility, especially through deep product, user experience, and marketing/distribution (see…
A Statistical Portrait of a Y Combinator Batch
ไลฟ์สไตล์ ธุรกิจ กีฬา ไอที บันเทิง แม่และเด็ก ความรู้รอบตัว รถยนต์ สัตว์เลี้ยง อสังหาริมทรัพย์ กิน-เที่ยว การเงินและการลงทุน สุขภาพ การศึกษา บ้านและสวน
I’ve Made $216,688 From Products This Year
Hey, would you look at the time? It’s getting late. Just two months until the deeply introspective blog posts start comin’ hot & heavy. It’s still on
Pivoting
programming, philosophy, history, internet, startups
The first open company
Gittip is not just another web app or start-up, it’s a new kind of company. I’m calling it an “open company,” and here are its three defining principles:
Tips for Startup Companies (2006)
Having rich parents is great. In fact, it is the best and surest way to get rich in these United States. Unfortunately, having a low cost of capital is no guarantee of success because, as formerly poor countries have become ridiculously rich, capital has become very cheap. Your competitors can probably get a home…
Startup Marketing Advice from Balsamiq Studios
News and announcements from your friends at Balsamiq.