The natural state of a start-up is to die; most start-ups require multiple miracles in their early days to escape this fate.

I think as a rough estimate, you should aim to give about 10% of the company to the first 10 employees.

A related advantage of mission oriented ideas, is that you yourself will be dedicated to them.

Mediocre founders spend a lot of time talking about grand plans, but they never quite make a decision.

People that are really smart and that can learn new things can almost always find a role in the company as time goes on.

... for the top twenty most valuable YC companies, all of them have at least two founders.

Be suspicious of any work that is not building product or getting customers. It's easy to get sucked into an infrastructure rewrite death spiral.