The importance of paying attention to users

The hardest part of being a sole founder is morale. 

When you start out, there are a million reasons why what you're doing isn't going to work. When you're a sole founder, there's no one to keep you going when things are going badly and no one to cheer you up.

Good ideas are often not quite intuitive. The outcomes of startups are hard to predict. There's a tremendous amount of luck involved. An idea might have something to it, but it's not obvious. 

• Figure out not just what users think is wrong but what's actually wrong. What's missing in their life?
• Ask them "What would you like to do that you can't?" They'll tend to give you an answer that's like a subset. 
• Try to find out what they really mean. Ask them, "What if you ...

• Most of the time, startup companies fail because of poor execution by the founders. 
• Startups seldom fail because of competition. 
• Startups are more likely to succeed if they start with a good founding team that knows one ano...

The risk of launching early is not so great as the risk of launching late. 

• Launch as soon as you have a quantum of utility, which means as soon as there are ten people who are glad that you launched because now they can do something that they couldn't do.
• If you're not embarra...

Advise for startups are often counintuitive and not obvious. For example:

• Don't do things that scale at first. Don't try to do too much in the beginning. You should do things that don't scale, meaning in a sort of handmade artisanal way so you can learn a lot from it.

Find someone you trust, and then find someone they trust. In other words, take recommendations from people. When you hire via the web, don't hire too fast.

Paul Graham picked Robert Morris as a cofounder because he was his co-conspirator. Robert was an exceptional programmer. He could progr...