... the thing we see wrong with YC apps most frequently, is that people have not thought about the market first and what people want first.

You should always know how you're doing against your metrics. You should always have a weekly review meeting every week.

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.

... you can think about that for everyone you hire: will I bet the future of this company on this single hire? And that's a tough bar.

Really dig into projects people have worked on and call references; that is another thing that first time founders like to skip.

If you don't love and believe in what you're building, you're likely to give up at some point along the way.

... and you can only have 2 or 3 things everyday, because everything else will just come at you; you know fires in a day.