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Go out of your way to be around smart, interesting, ambitious people. Work for them and hire them (in fact, one of the most satisfying parts of work is forging deep relationships with really good people). Try to spend time with people who are either among the best in the world at what they do or extremely promising but totally unknown. It really is true that you become an average of the people you spend the most time with.

So you're going to have a core team. The first day anybody starts, have them write down on a piece of paper the 5 or 10 most impressive people they know, and definitely do it on the first day and then go reach out to those 5 or 10 people. Meta, or Facebook back in the day, used to do this ruthlessly, like completely, from like 2005 to 7. This is how they built Facebook before it was so cool and trendy that, you know, they could use all the other techniques.

So as you're thinking about cofounders and people that could be good, there's a question of what you're looking for right? At YC we have this public phrase, and it's relentlessly resourceful, and everyone's heard of it. And you definitely need relentlessly resourceful cofounders, but there's a more colorful example that we share at the YC kickoff. Paul Graham started using this and I've kept it going. So, you're looking for cofounders that need to be unflappable, tough, they know what to do in every situation. They act quickly, they're decisive, they're creative, they're ready for anything, and it turns out that there's a model for this in pop culture. And it sounds very dumb, but it's at least very memorable and we've told every class of YC this for a long time and I think it helps them. And that model is James Bond. And again, this sounds crazy, but it will at least stick in your memory and you need someone that behaves like James Bond more than you need someone that is an expert in some particular domain.

Pretend you’re sending an email. Or a Slack message. It will calm your mind and yield better writing.

We design our products to make very complex things very easy.

[What should meeting minutes include?] Minutes should tell the reader what is to be done, who is to do it, and when, and they should be sent out quickly before attendees forget what happened.

When hiring, look for people with the right attitude. Skills can be taught. Attitude changes require a brain transplant.

[How should status differentials be handled?] In the free discussion stage, everybody should voice opinions and beliefs as equals, forgetting or ignoring status differentials.

Being able to travel is one of the key ways the modern world is better than the old world. Learn to travel well.

A players hire A players, B players hire lots of C players.