Paul Graham says launching a startup is the 'least efficient' way to look cool
Graham pushed back on the idea of treating a startup as another credential to add to a résumé. Bloomberg/Getty Images Paul Graham advised against starting startups just to seem cool. The YC cofounder likened startup challenges to studying theoretical physics at Harvard. He added that having a startup on your résumé is not a meaningful badge. There are easier ways to impress people than spending years trying to keep a company alive, says Paul Graham. "If you want to seem cool, like starting a startup is just about the least efficient way to do it," Graham, the cofounder of Y Combinator, said in an interview with the accelerator that was released on Thursday. "It's brutally hard, and you won't seem cool for years." Graham is one of YC's four founders and a prolific startup sage whose 2024 "founder mode" essay quickly entered the Silicon Valley zeitgeist. Launched in 2005, YC has backed some of best-known tech companies, including Airbnb, Stripe, Coinbase, DoorDash, Dropbox, Reddit, and OpenAI. YC says its companies have a combined valuation of $1.3 trillion. In the interview, Graham also pushed back on the idea of treating a startup as another credential to add to a résumé. If a star
Graham pushed back on the idea of treating a startup as another credential to add to a résumé. Bloomberg/Getty Images Paul Graham advised against starting startups just to seem cool. The YC cofounder likened startup challenges to studying theoretical physics at Harvard. He added that having a startup on your résumé is not a meaningful badge. There are easier ways to impress people than spending years trying to keep a company alive, says Paul Graham. "If you want to seem cool, like starting a startup is just about the least efficient way to do it," Graham, the cofounder of Y Combinator, said in an interview with the accelerator that was released on Thursday. "It's brutally hard, and you won't seem cool for years." Graham is one of YC's four founders and a prolific startup sage whose 2024 "founder mode" essay quickly entered the Silicon Valley zeitgeist. Launched in 2005, YC has backed some of best-known tech companies, including Airbnb, Stripe, Coinbase, DoorDash, Dropbox, Reddit, and OpenAI. YC says its companies have a combined valuation of $1.3 trillion. In the interview, Graham also pushed back on the idea of treating a startup as another credential to add to a résumé. If a star
