Do Things That Don't Scale

There's a more extreme variant where you don't just use your software, but are your software. When you only have a small number of users, you can sometimes get away with doing by hand things that you plan to automate later. This lets you launch faster, and when you do finally automate yourself out of the loop, you'll know exactly what to build beca... See more

It's not enough just to do something extraordinary initially. You have to make an extraordinary effort initially. Any strategy that omits the effort — whether it's expecting a big launch to get you users, or a big partner — is ipso facto suspect.

Software startups face the same dilemma. Basecamp’s founders famously turned down VC money and capped headcount. They wanted to stay small on purpose. Not to signal humility, to preserve sovereignty. They understood that the minute you optimize for scale, you subordinate every other variable to it. Product quality, user intimacy, personal time - th... See more

One of the most common types of advice we give at Y Combinator is to do things that don't scale. A lot of would-be founders believe that startups either take off or don't.