Paul Graham

Publish 'when it's ready,' not on a frequency

Julian argues the best creators (Wait But Why, Paul Graham, Everyday Astronaut) deliberately don't publish on a set frequency, with slogans like 'new post every sometimes.' Forcing creative genius onto a deadline is a trap; they publish only when they truly have something to say.

“Wait But Why, or Paul Graham, who I mentioned earlier, Everyday Astronaut, right? What they all have in common is they don't publish content on a set frequency. Like, literally, the slogan for waitbutwhy.com, this great blog that people love, is new post every sometimes. At the end of the Everyday Astronaut videos, they'll be like, the next video will be out when it's ready. And like, Paul Graham will post at a very erratic schedule. And what they all have in common is they're publishing when they truly have something to say.”

Steal thisIf your content depends on originality, publish only when you have something to say rather than chaining yourself to a posting cadence.

Build the Hacker News for crypto (not about price)

Sam pitches a crypto news aggregator modeled on Hacker News, with a strict no-price-talk rule so technology and usage discussions aren't drowned out by daily price moves. He suggests a figurehead like Pomp is positioned to own it.

“Hey, I think somebody can create this. I think maybe Pomp or somebody who's like a central figurehead in crypto similar to Paul Graham, maybe Pomp should be creating the Hacker News for crypto that is specifically not about price. I think that would be a smart move. If I was Pomp, I would consider doing that.”

Steal thisLaunch a niche 'Hacker News for X' with one firewall rule that bans the topic everyone defaults to (e.g. price).

Live in the future, then build what's missing

Shaan relays Paul Graham's idea: if you already live in an unusual, forward-looking way — renting everything, couch-surfing, push-button groceries — the next product is obvious to you. Spot what's normal to you but abnormal to others and make it accessible.

“He basically says, uh, if you want to invent the future, um, just live in the future and then invent what's missing.”

Steal thisCatalog the things that are normal in your life but abnormal to most people — those are seeds of products that bring the future to everyone.

Fast Grants: YC-style science funding decided in under 48 hours

Shaan describes Fast Grants (created by Stripe's Patrick/John Collison), which fixes the slow science-grant system by making a $10K-$500K funding decision in under 48 hours, wired immediately. Backers include Paul Graham, Reid Hoffman, Chris Sacca, and Elon Musk, with over $15M committed.

“So Fast Grant is basically a $10,000 to $500,000 decision made in under 48 hours. If you approve the grant, if the grant is approved, you receive the payment as quickly as can be wired to your account. Now, and so they have the Carlson brothers behind it. They have Paul Graham, Reid Hoffman, Chris Sacca, Elon Musk, a whole bunch of different people. So they have— they've committed over $15 million already in fast grants.”

Live in the future and build what's missing for everyone else

Shaan paraphrases Paul Graham's essay on getting startup ideas: the easiest way to invent the future is to already live in it (as Zuckerberg did by sharing his life online before others) and then build whatever is still missing for everyone else.

“So Paul Graham, again, YC. Has this essay and he's talking about like how to get great startup ideas. And if you're listening to this, you want to get great startup ideas, I would go— I recommend you go read this.”

Steal thisAudit the manual hacks and tools that already make your own lifestyle better than everyone else's, then productize and educate the market on them.

Airbnb's founders became the photographers to fix ugly listings

Shaan retells the Paul Graham 'do things that don't scale' story: Airbnb was stuck with ~20 customers until Graham told them to go to New York where their hosts were. They personally shot professional photos of listings, lifting bookings, and that unscalable hack eventually became a real photographer fleet.

“they would tell their customers, hey, we want to do professional photos of your place. It increases bookings by 40%. Um, are you open to that? And then they would show up as the professional photographer and be like, hey, by the way, I'm the founder.”

Steal thisGo where your earliest customers physically are and do the unscalable manual work that fixes their biggest problem.

Going quiet to investors is the death signal — talk most when it's worst

Sam's investor-update rule: founders who stop sending updates are usually dying and retreating into a shell, citing Paul Graham. Counterintuitively, that's when you need the help most, so stay top of mind and keep asking — you might survive if you do.

“And there's a very good sign if you're an investor, if you're one of your companies stop sending their updates for a bit, that company is about to die or they're on their way to dying and they go into a shell. And Paul Graham has this great post, which is just like, as an investor, when you see that, you know, it's time to go check in. And as a founder, Ironically, that's when you need the help the most. Yep. So don't go quiet when you need the help the most.”

Steal thisSend tight monthly investor updates — numbers first, then what's going well, what isn't, and where you need help — and never go silent when things get bad.

Telling investors you're not raising is the fundraising trick

Stuck at ~$300K raised and waking up with panic attacks, Vlad got Paul Graham's advice that three founders with $300K could just build. They told every investor they were winding down and not raising — which triggered fresh interest and let them close $1.4 million.

“And with that confidence, we just told all of the investors we were talking to, like, hey, we're, we're not raising, winding down. Yeah. And, you know, we're just going to go back to building the product because at that point, like, our customers weren't getting any attention. You know, it was, it was just a really stressful time. And when you say you're not raising anymore, like, a bunch of other stuff came in. So we ended up raising like $1.4 million.”

Steal thisSignal you don't need the money — scarcity and herd dynamics pull investors in.

Get to 'default alive' — if you never raise again, you don't die

After realizing they couldn't raise again and only converting under 1-2% of their waitlist, Webflow chose to grow slower and build their CMS to reach break-even, what Paul Graham calls 'default alive' — the freeing state where you keep building because survival no longer depends on the next round.

“So we started building our CMS and thankfully that was the right call of like just going slow slower in getting to breakeven or what's sometimes called like default alive. Yeah, right. If you never raise again, you're at least not going to die.”

Steal thisEngineer your business to be default alive — let break-even, not the next round, be the safety net.