15 paul graham essays to help you build a unicorn

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Y Combinator has launched startups worth over $300 billion Paul Graham founded YC and has written 212 essays about startups here are the 15 essays that will help you build a unicorn:

do things that don't scale: startups don't grow on their own. founders are responsible for getting them going. to learn how to do it, they need to do things that don't scale. paulgraham.com/ds.html

startups = growth: not all new companies are startups. startups are designed to grow fast above all else. here's how to use growth as a compass paulgraham.com/growth.html

how to get startup ideas: don't look for ideas, look for problems. preferably ones you have yourself paulgraham.com/startupideas.html

18 mistakes that kill startups: if you don't make something people want, your startup will die. here are 18 ways to get there paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html

billionaires build: how to ace your Y Combinator interview, used as an example for why billionaires are just people who make things that people want paulgraham.com/ace.html

what startups are really like: a list of 19 common surprises about startups, as told by YC founders paulgraham.com/really.html

how to convince investors: inexperienced founders try to convince investors. they should instead let their startup do the work paulgraham.com/convince.html

how to make wealth: outlines the principles behind why the best way to get rich is to take on a hard problem with a small company paulgraham.com/wealth.html

the hardest lesson for startups to learn: actually a list of 7 "hardest lessons" that startups have to learn paulgraham.com/startuplessons.html

how to start a startup: to be successful, a startup needs 3 things — good people, making something that people want, and spending as little money as possible paulgraham.com/start.html

why not to start a startup: explores 16 commonly cited reasons to not build a startup and says which are real, and which aren't paulgraham.com/notnot.html

how to think for yourself: you don't want to start a startup that everyone agrees is a good idea. you have to do something that sounds to most other people like a bad idea, but that you know isn't paulgraham.com/think.html

relentlessly resourceful: "make something people want" is the destination. "be relentlessly resourceful" is how you get there paulgraham.com/relres.html

hiring is obsolete: thoughtful observations about how lowering the cost of starting a startup means we'll see more big ideas from younger people paulgraham.com/hiring.html

holding a program in one's head: 8 tips for how to get your head around an entire problem that can evolve into a startup paulgraham.com/head.html

bonus — the bus ticket theory of genius: great work doesn't just include talent and determination. it also includes a baseline obsessive interest in the topic for no defined reason paulgraham.com/genius.html

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