@kanopy.labs: Paul Graham. Co-founder of Y Combinator. The accelerator behind Airbnb, Stripe, Dropbox, Reddit, and over 4,000 other startups. Combined value over $600 billion. And his advice is counterintuitive. Do not try to start a startup. Just work on something you think would be cool. He is not being humble. He is describing what actually happened with YC. It was not a master plan. They were not trying to build the most important accelerator in tech. They were not trying to make money. It was a project. Something they thought would be interesting to try. Graham tells YC founders this all the time. The ones who show up saying "I want to start a company" and then go looking for an idea almost always struggle. The ones who show up saying "I have this thing I cannot stop thinking about" almost always do better. The difference is where the energy comes from. When the project is the point, you make decisions based on what makes the product better. When the company is the point, you make decisions based on what looks good to investors. That is exactly what we see with the founders we work with. The best projects never start with "I want to build a company." They start with "I have this thing and I need help making it real." We help founders go from that moment to a working product in about eight weeks. Let's talk. #paulgraham #ycombinator #yc #startupadvice #founderstory #startuplessons #techfounder #startupfounder #productstudio #buildinpublic #softwarestudio #entrepreneurship #productfirst #foundermindset #companybuilding #siliconvalley #startup #buildwithus #startuplife #projectfirst

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Sunday 11 October 2026 20:20:00 GMT