The Pocket Guide of Essential YC Advice Launch now Build something people want Do things that don't scale Find the 90 / 10 solution Find 10-100 customers who love your product All startups are badly broken at some point Write code - talk to users "It's not your money" Growth is the result of a great product not the precursor Don't scale your team/product until you have built something people want Valuation is not equal to success or even probability of success Avoid long negotiated deals with big customers if you can Avoid big company corporate development queries - they will only waste time Avoid conferences unless they are the best way to get customers Pre-product market fit - do things that don't scale: remain small/nimble Startups can only solve one problem well at any given time Founder relationships matter more than you think Sometimes you need to fire your customers (they might be killing you) Ignore your competitors, you will more likely die of suicide t...