Paul GrahamVerified account

If you were a 22 year old that just graduated college today, what would you do with your life? @GwynneShotwell @naval @RampCapitalLLC @eriktorenberg @AdamDraper @FutureJurvetson @smc90 @elonmusk @rrhoover @mattocko @jposhaughnessy @APompliano @paulg @bhorowitz @asteroid_saku

One thing I know for sure I would not do is go work for a big company, even a prestigious one like Google. I'd probably either go to grad school (like I did) or start a startup.

and apply to @ycombinator ?

If I were a 22 year starting a startup I would certainly apply to YC. Which is not that surprising, since it was designed to be what I wish I'd had when I did start one. But (assuming I got in) I would not get sucked into raising a huge amount on Demo Day.

I would raise maybe $500k, keep the company small for the first year, work closely with users to make something amazing, and otherwise stay off SV's radar. In other words, be the opposite of a scenester.

Ideally I'd get to profitability on that initial $500k. Later I could raise more, if I felt like it. Or not. But it would be on my terms.

At every point in the company's growth, I'd keep the company as small as I could. I'd always want people to be surprised how few employees we had. Fewer employees = lower costs, and less need to turn into a manager.

Are you purposely keeping the company small so you can make better "long term growth" decisions, or are you purposely sacrificing growth because you just hate the "managing" part too much?