Paul GrahamVerified account

Something I explained to 12 yo: The biggest startups are always where two basic forces meet. E.g. Facebook = social relationships + internet. But these ideas are rarely found by looking for such intersections. They start as side projects you only later realize have this quality.

One exception is Amazon, which Bezos started after he realized the internet would be a powerful force and asked what he could intersect it with.

YC is at the intersection of venture funding and mass production. We realized this a few weeks after starting it, but it was not our original motivation. Originally we just wanted to make it easier to start startups.