Execution gets divided into two key questions: 1) can you figure out what to do and 2) can you get it done.

Before 20 or 25 employees, most companies are structured with everyone reporting to the founder. It's totally flat.

Execution gets divided into two key questions: 1) can you figure out what to do and 2) can you get it done.

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

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.

No matter what you choose, build stuff and be around smart people.

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