The point of an accelerator is to teach you about companies and business, not about technology.
There's this famous observation that I totally believe: Great startup ideas are the ones that lie in the intersection of the Venn diagram of 'is a good idea' and 'looks like a bad idea.' So you want most people to think it's a bad idea and thus not compete with you until you get giant. But for it to secretly be good.
The only way to generate sustained exponential growth is to make whatever you're making sufficiently good.
Virgin America flyers tend to be more likely to be using a mobile device and tapping social networks - even at 35,000 feet.
That culture of frugality and discipline is really important for the Y Combinator mindset.
Generally, you want to raise capital either when you have to or when it's really easy. If the company desperately needs money, and they can't figure out any other way, then they need to raise money. Or if someone's offering you easy money on good terms, you should take it because you can use it for good things.
If you wanted to build an Internet startup in 2005, you had to buy your own servers and hire someone to manage it. Now, that's unheard of.
Anonymity breeds meanness.
You really want a company full of missionaries, not mercenaries.
I think you can say a lot of evil behavior by companies is short-term optimization.
Being a public company is really terrible for most companies. I'd say Facebook and Google have done a pretty good job of standing up to the incredible quarterly pressure to hit numbers, but most companies - and I've observed a lot now - don't do a very good job of that.
There is a lot of stuff I like. I love backpacking. I love going to an island where I can just sit on the beach and read or scuba dive and sail. I do a lot of that. I still go backpacking around Europe in the summers and staying in hostels. I love that.
Never put your family, friends, or significant other low on your priority list. Prefer a handful of truly close friends to a hundred acquaintances.
Tech companies tend to do tech best.
Background updating is absolutely the future.
