as someone who used to be a founder but is now a VC, the one thing I would go back and tell my former self is:

STOP IGNORING PAUL GRAHAM

His essays are not just an ideal that you should strive towards. If you do what he says you will probably win; if you don’t do what he says you’ll almost certainly lose.

Crypto product builder, pre-seed investing @ Boost.VC

As a founder it’s important to get really good at being comfortable being different (from your competitors, your peers, etc) and to believe you’re an outlier

But don’t try to be an outlier among startup founders— even though PG’s principles seem vague they are real patterns learned with large data

Follow up is that the best thing you can do (for yourself, your team, your users, your investors, etc etc) is to face the cold realities asap if you read his essays and there are nontrivial differences in your strategy

Love his essays but couldn't stand him going on and on about his kids lmao