When it comes to starting startups, in many ways, it's easier to start a hard startup than an easy startup.

... 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.

At the beginning, you should only hire when you have a desperate need to.

I think the best thing you can do is be aware that as a first time founder you are likely to be a very bad manager.

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

You're either not hiring at all or it's probably your single biggest block of time.

It's better to have no cofounder than to have a bad cofounder, but it's still bad to be a solo founder.