3 pieces of advice from a millionaire YC founder

Yesterday I chatted with a YC founder who just took a multi-million exit.

Here are 3 pieces of advice he gave me:

1. Growth is Everything for Startups:

I asked him many questions about strategy, legal, VC, and partnerships.

The answer to all of them?

Growth.

With growth and traction, many problems you thought you had automatically resolve themselves.

As Sam Altman says, “Momentum is everything in a startup. If you have momentum, you can survive most other problems. If you don’t, nothing except getting momentum will solve your problems.”

  1. Avoid Funding from Family Members:

Family often has a lower bar for investing in your idea.

It prevents thorough thinking of your business plan.

It risks wasting time and money on non-viable projects.

It takes away valuable opportunities to build a network and form connections crucial to your business’s future.

This is what “old money” people do for their family:

They connect you with VC investors, but the pitching is up to you.

  1. Set Concrete Targets:

Decide on one or two metrics that define growth for your startup.

For example for presspulse.ai, my target is 10k signups in 6 months.

Then aim for a 7% week-over-week growth rate. (The YC rule of thumb)

It means you should 34x your business in one year.

Hold yourself accountable to this target.

Every. Single. Week.

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ps. Got questions I should ask this founder? Comment below.