Paul GrahamVerified account

When talking to investors, don't try to hide your problems. Investors know every startup is a series of disasters. If you pretend nothing's wrong, they'll assume you're lying. Confident founders are candid.

There's also a more subtle reason not to hide your problems from investors. You'll have much more interesting conversations if you're open about them. Nothing is more convincing to a good investor than seeing a good founder's mind at work.

(Later stage, the most convincing thing is revenue growth. But you'd need something like 18 months of steep revenue growth before a good investor would start to care as much about that graph as about how your mind works.)