Good startups usually take 10 years.

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

The tenth social network, and limited only to college students with no money, also terrible. Myspace had won.

The thing that kills startups at some level, is the founders giving up.

You can create value with breakthrough innovation, incremental refinement, or complex coordination. Great companies often do two of these. The very best companies do all three.

It's difficult to get large groups of people, to the extreme levels of focus and productivity that you need, for a startup to be successful.

We've seen a lot of data at YC now, and the most successful companies and the ones where the investors do the best... end up giving a lot of stock out to employees- year after year after year.