Don't let the company get distracted or excited about other things. A common mistake is that companies get excited by their own PR.

You want an idea that not many other people are working on, and it's okay if it doesn't sound big at first.

There's at least a hundred times more people with great ideas than people that are willing to put in the effort to execute them well.

Most startups are not nearly focussed enough. They work hard...maybe, but they don't work hard on the right things.

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

The second part of how to hire: try not to.

Here's a good rule of thumb: don't worry about a competitor at all, until they're actually beating you with a real shipped product.