If you ever take your foot off the gas pedal, things will spiral out of control, snowball downwards.

I think as a rough estimate, you should aim to give about 10% of the company to the first 10 employees.

You only get points when you make something the market wants. So if you work really hard on the wrong things, no one will care.

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.

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.

A lot of people treat choosing their cofounder with even less importance than they put on hiring. Don't do this.

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