Starting a business is like riding a wave between life and death. If you can hang on long enough, you're bound to succeed

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.

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

Facebook has this famous poster that says move fast and break things. But at the same time they manage to be obsessed with quality.

... you want to be proud of how much you can get done with a small numbers of employees.

One thing that often disrupts momentum and really shouldn't is competitors.

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