
A Conversation with Paul Graham - Moderated by Geoff Ralston
About this video
Y Combinator's Geoff Ralston interviews Paul Graham about startups and founders in a Startup School conversation. It touches on Viaweb, Robert Morris and what makes founders effective.
Why it appears in the archive
HN mostly cites it for specific Graham remarks, such as advice to find a paying customer and a recent interview about Viaweb.
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From the Hacker News discussion
Here is a (recent) very interesting interview with PG, among others, talking about Viaweb. Bonus points: very funny. [VIDEO]
Read original comment ↗[VIDEO] He doesn't sound sorry =p But if he really did "choose" the other guys, then maybe calling him the founder isn't so wrong.
Read original comment ↗[VIDEO] --- And we got him an earring. There are photographs on the Internet of Robert Morris with an earring. --- I could not find such photographs ... [LINK]
Read original comment ↗Thank you for the mention. My quantum-of-one [0] was my late 94-year-old grandfather [1]. My brother and I gave NanaGram to him for his birthday. (Well, really it was a quantum of two because my grandmother also loves getting photos in the mail.) I got married this past June and at the wedding shower my Mom gave my wife lingerie while chanting "4 kids! 4 kids! 4 kids!" As you can probably tell, my Mom has 4 kids. My initial use case was "I want to send curated 4x6 prints from my 3 siblings and I to my grandparents." Most people using NanaGram send photos to their loved ones but we do have some folks sending photos to themselves. @trykondev FYI your title tag is "Mysite." This is a super fun space to be in. Good luck with your launch. I think grandparents and moms are some the best of quantums. [0] [VIDEO] [1] [LINK]
Read original comment ↗Find a customer. If you can find one customer who has a pain point that is strong enough for which they are willing to pay $$ and even tolerate a sub-standard product/service, you're probably on to something. This is also what PG advises [0]. I've been bootstrapping my startup, I landed a fairly well-known startup as a client which is helping a great deal. Delivering a good quality service gave me capital and credibility to now parlay for future business. [0] [VIDEO]
Read original comment ↗It feels like YC is the mainstream thing nowadays, the traditional school of startupery. But startup founders and hackers like the naughty [0] things, not the established. [0]: [VIDEO]
Read original comment ↗