Up and Running

MAY 30, 2018

My first company, Digital-Tutors , grew from a startup in my living room with $54 of my own seed money into a multi-million-dollar business with customers around the world. I was proud of the fact that we never used any outside investment money to grow the company. As leaders, we want to hire great team members to do great work.

Startup 107

Startup Seed Money Employee Conversion 107

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

Think about it – most entrepreneurs who manage to raise seed money or venture capital usually raise enough money for 12-18 months maximum. Recruit employees in the blind belief that the amazing job they’re quitting to join you will be worth it in the long run. My employees. Hire fast, fire faster.

Monaco 420

Monaco Cofounder Chicago Mexico 420

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

He's been with the firm since its inception in 2009 and has overseen its rapid growth, from three employees to 150+ and from $300 million in assets under management to more than $10 billion. First, the introduction of seed money as an institutional form of capital.

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

www.paulgraham.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

One of the best tricks I learned during our startup was a rule for deciding who to hire. And when businesspeople try to hire hackers, they cant tell which ones are good.Even other hackers have a hard time doing that. Usually you get seed money from individual rich people called"angels." For business people its roulette.

Startup 105

Startup Cofounder Software Stock 105

The Next Web

DECEMBER 30, 2013

And it’s no wonder – the laidback, outdoorsy culture draws highly-skilled, overworked employees from larger cities. The result is a rapidly-growing local tech economy: tech hiring is among the highest in the nation at 1.7 Colorado is the number one relocation destination in the US for skilled workers ages 25 to 44.

Denver 166

Denver Silicon Valley San Jose Colorado 166

Gust

OCTOBER 2, 2014

Think about it – most entrepreneurs who manage to raise seed money or venture capital usually raise enough money for 12-18 months maximum. Recruit employees in the blind belief that the amazing job they’re quitting to join you will be worth it in the long run. My employees. You hire them, you own them now.

Monaco 122

Monaco Cofounder Chicago Mexico 122

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

It wasnt because they werent accredited investors that I didntask my parents for seed money, though. When we were starting Viaweb,I didnt know about the concept of an accredited investor, anddidnt stop to think about the value of investors connections.The reason I didnt take money from my parents was that I didntwant them to lose it.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

pandodaily.com

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

We know this: As many as a thousand companies who’ve received seed rounds won’t be around in a year — maybe six months. There simply won’t be soft-landings and acqui-hires for all of them. The number of seed and angel investors has exploded in recent years, buoyed up by a number of factors.

Technical Review 93

Technical Review Silicon Valley Incubator Syria 93

Berkonomics

MARCH 30, 2012

Most economists, however, purport that our recovery will never stabilize until small businesses can access capital, hire new employees, and grow. Crowd Funding: The Internet is at work here, especially for obtaining early stager seed money.

Intellectual Property 76

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Small Business Administration SBA 76

www.paulgraham.com

AUGUST 1, 2008

We could hire employees, but we want to be forced to figure out how to scale investing. As the volume of startups increases, big companies will start to develop standardized procedures that make acquisitions little more work than hiring someone. At Y Combinator we still only have four people, so we try to standardize everything.

Web 54

Web Startup Silicon Valley Technical Review 54

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Inevitably, the excuses begin: I need to hire people to build the product. I need money for the servers. No raising money. In later posts I’m going to get into more detail on specific topics like hiring, raising money, what types of ideas have the potential to get big, finding your founders, and the like.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 6, 2014

A founder will raise one party round worth of seed money and they''ll go teach a class on how to raise venture capital. A BD person at an aqui-hire will write a book on the art of the deal. in funding, and expand from 3 employees to 13—three of which I’d recruited and hired. Growth hacking? ” So.

Startup 147

Startup Venture Capital IPO Viral 147