Each essay starts from one sentence a founder or investor is known for. It traces who said it, where and to whom, then tests the advice against what happened in practice: where it holds, where it breaks, and what to weigh instead.
A good first read is If the first version doesn’t embarrass you, it shipped too late, on Reid Hoffman’s rule for launching early: what kind of embarrassment he meant, and where shipping early does damage.
Most read
The essays readers open most, in order.
- If the first version doesn't embarrass you, it shipped too lateReid Hoffman
- Move fast and break things, and count what breaksMark Zuckerberg
- Interest can stand in for a plan, up to a pointMark Zuckerberg
- Explaining something to a peer shows what you do not knowJeff Atwood
- Punches you can see coming beat the slow kindPaul Graham
- The hard part is letting go of the old ideaEdwin Land
- Design is how the thing worksSteve Jobs
- The word “try” is often an excuse filed in advanceYoda
Product
59 essays, 2010–2011
- Fog Creek's marketing experiments, and the release that beat themJoel Spolsky2011
- Every feature keeps sending a billDavid Karp2011
- When the market sours, the business underneath is what remainsFred Wilson2011
- Built in the downturn, collected in the recoveryJason Calacanis2011
- For the person using it, the screen is all there isAza Raskin2011
- Nothing is viral until other people decide it isPeter Shankman2011
Execution
117 essays, 2010–2011
- The feeling of being finished is the thing to watchIngvar Kamprad2011
- An idea earns its value when someone uses itThomas Edison2011
- What gets measured and watched gets better, mostlyBob Parsons2011
- Small companies win with attention, not muscleJack Ma2011
- Working alone, the day starts with one choiceNoah Everett2011
- Ship it, iterate hard, and admit the outcome is a hopeKyle Bragger2011
Founders and teams
75 essays, 2010–2014
- Mark Zuckerberg's lines, and what they meant for building a companyMark Zuckerberg2014
- Build the rough version the technology allows todayDennis Crowley2011
- The objection that became the featureAaron Patzer2011
- Someone at the table is better than youTony Hsieh2011
- Acting brilliant is the slow road to being seen as brilliantSeth Godin2011
- Progress runs through the change people resistCharles F. Kettering2011
Money
20 essays, 2010–2026
- A theory is worth what it does in the shopJames Cash Penney2011
- Richest in the cemetery was never the goalSteve Jobs2011
- The complaint that says the price is rightPaul Graham2011
- Running out of cash is honest, but lateDavid Heinemeier Hansson2011
- Traction attracts investors, but not every good product has the kind they wantDavid Cohen2011
- The business model Instapaper runs onMarco Arment2011
Kept at the top
Borrowing to bootstrap: set the stopping rule first
Seth Godin’s The Dip says winners quit the right things at the right time, and Poland makes that moment easy to postpone: six months free of social contributions and two years of reduced ones leave almost nothing outside a founder to force a verdict, so the sum, the date and the number that has to move are best written down before the first loan, from a bank or from Avinto.
· Money
Speakers
Everyone whose words open an essay, by surname. A name leads to that speaker's essays in the archive.
A Sachin Agarwal Sam Altman Marco Arment 2 Michael Arrington 2 Jeff Atwood 2 B Micah Baldwin 2 Jim Barksdale Jen Bekman Scott Belsky 2 Marc Benioff 3 Kyle Bragger 2 Richard Branson Jim Breyer Paul Buchheit Warren Buffett Brad Burnham C Jason Calacanis 2 Ryan Carson 2 Steve Case 2 Jean-David Chamboredon Billy Chasen Brian Chesky 2 Gary Chou Jeff Clavier Jon Yongfook Cockle David Cohen 2 Jason Cohen Jim Collins 4 Ron Conway 2 Dennis Crowley 4 Mark Cuban 4 Leah Culver D Bart Decrem Michael Dell 2 Walt Disney Chris Dixon John Doerr 3 Jack Dorsey 2 Esther Dyson 2 E Thomas Edison 2 Roger Ehrenberg Larry Ellison 4 Noah Everett F Caterina Fake 3 Brad Feld Henry Ford 2 Ryan Freitas 2 Jason Fried 3 Spencer Fry 2 G Todd Garland Gordon Gekko Seth Godin 6 Chuck Gordon Paul Graham 4 Dan Greenberg Forrest Gump H Kevin Hale Omar Hamoui 2 David Heinemeier Hansson 2 Scott Heiferman 2 Reid Hoffman 4 Ben Horowitz Drew Houston 2 Tony Hsieh 4 Arianna Huffington 4 Chris Hughes 2 Ben Huh 3 I Jonathan Ive 2 J Josh James Magnus Jepson Steve Jobs 6 K Rob Kalin Ingvar Kamprad 4 Justin Kan 2 David Karp 3 Guy Kawasaki Alan Kay 2 Ben Keighran 2 Tom Kelley Charles F. Kettering 2 Joe Kraus 3 L Sarah Lacy 2 Edwin Land 4 Jessica Livingston 2 Michael Lopp 2 M Jack Ma 3 Dan Martell Andrew Mason 2 Marissa Mayer 2 Greg McAdoo 2 Dave McClure 2 Matt Mullenweg 2 Garrett Murray N Jake Nickell 2 Friedrich Nietzsche O Tim O'Reilly 2 Pierre Omidyar 2 P Larry Page 2 Sean Parker Bob Parsons 2 Aaron Patzer 4 James Cash Penney 3 Jonah Peretti Mark Pincus 3 Shervin Pishevar Tom Preston-Werner 3 R Sean Rad Aza Raskin 4 Matt Rutledge Nolan Ryan S Bijan Sabet 2 Joshua Schachter 2 Howard Schultz Hiten Shah Peter Shankman Kathy Sierra Adam Smith 2 Angelo Sotira 2 Gregg Spiridellis Joel Spolsky 4 Tony Stark Biz Stone 2 Lisa Stone Jeremy Stoppelman 2 Mark Suster 2 T Alexander Tamas Garry Tan W Tim Westergren 3 Wendy Tan White Evan Williams 2 Fred Wilson 6 Rebecca Woodcock Y Yoda Z Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten Mark Zuckerberg 4 Unattributed 4