Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham argues that poor execution kills 100 times more startups than competition

@paulg @StartupASAP Extremely wise advice

Stay focused

@JoshBobrowsky When startups fail the reason is almost always that they haven't made what people want.

@paulg Team blowing up Shiny object syndrome Not talking to customers not executing fast enough Loosing steam/hope etc...

@Vladyslav_kl Building something no one wants.

@paulg true story, unfortunately. and even in such hype and on-demand ones like agentic startups are failing hard. and are underinvested btw

@paulg What would you say top causes of failure are

Founder fighting and losing interest?

@paulg @JoshBobrowsky ‘What people want’ is one of the hardest things to identify.

@paulg I did not execute because you all stole my money with my name raising trillions. If you were so great, why did you all need my name to raise the money? I do not donate a cent to anyone else because you all never gave me anything in 33 years for wrecking my life to feed you.

@paulg Because with that logic the founders of your competitors are equally mucking up their companies.

@paulg What does poor execution mean? Would you give examples of good vs bad

@paulg can what people want supersede a revenue model?

@paulg This is a good take, important to realize and have great support systems.

@paulg Is theft of others' money and US cancer AI moonshot sterilizing & murdering 150mln Chinese women for mrna cancer vaccins in an act of high treason not sloppy?

@paulg I believe this. I think this goes to life and business as well as a whole. Many of us are only limited by our own demons, anxiety etc, If you can find piece and focus within, the rest is possible.

@paulg On the plus side, far more competitors die from poor executions, which makes great lessons at a distance and leeaves founders open to lead rather than follow

@paulg AI will make this even more obvious. When building gets cheaper and faster, poor execution has fewer places to hide.

@hthieblot @paulg Might explain why many impacts come from solo work. From Newton to Einstein; the team comes afterwards :)

No team to blow up or disappoint. No one to impress with shiny objects. Building for oneself as the first customer. No competition to rush for. Not relying on steam or hope.

@hthieblot @paulg Because it lets the public judge by familiarity, instead of pushing through new boundaries :)

I said it smooths out rough edges that end up making the charm people love about gaming when overcome

And it gets surprising how fast people can adapt, when giving them the chance to.

@hthieblot @paulg I think companies fail because they lose sight of this, the rest become symptoms manifesting out of these.

@hthieblot @paulg Motivation turns into obsession, quality keeps rising up. Reading Man's Search for Meaning changed how I think. (That and many, many other books along the journey :D)