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

You really want to know your cofounders for a while, ideally years.

In the early days of a startup, people's compensation is whatever you negotiate with a founder and it's all over the place.

The track record for founders that don't already know each other is really bad.

One of the pieces of advice that we give at YC is: try to work together on a project rather than just doing an interview.

So it's worth some real up front time to think through the long term value and the defensibility of the business.

Before product/market fit, your only job that matters is to build a great product.