Many of the best YC companies have had phenomenally small number of employees for their first year, sometimes none besides the founders.

You think you have this great idea that everyone's going to come join, but that's not how it works.

In addition to relentlessly resourceful, you want a tough and a calm cofounder.

There's no way I know, to get through the pain of a startup without belief that the mission really matters.

AirBnB spent 5 months interviewing their first employee, before they hired someone and in their first year, they only hired 2 people.

If you look at successful pivots, they almost always are a pivot into something that the founder wanted. Not a random made up idea.

If someone is getting every decision wrong, that's when you need to act, and at that point it'll be painfully aware to everyone.