How Not to Die

Paul Graham’s essay How Not to Die presents a stark reality: roughly half of YC-funded startups will fail. But success essentially comes down to survival—”if you can just avoid dying, you get rich.”

The Real Cause of Death

While startups officially die from running out of money or founder departures, the underlying issue is typically loss of morale. “Startups rarely die in mid keystroke.” Active, engaged teams persist.

The Most Dangerous Mistake

The most damaging mistake is pursuing other commitments. Founders saying things like “we’re going to keep working on the startup, but…” are essentially giving up.

Graduate school, consulting, and other projects are particularly dangerous because they provide psychological escape routes.

Survival Strategies

Maintain Momentum: Regular communication—whether with YC, other founders, or peer communities—creates accountability and forces progress. The constraint of reporting creates natural deadlines.

Focus on Core Users: Rather than seeking universal appeal, identify and nurture passionate early users. Blogger and Delicious demonstrated that expanding a devoted core audience leads to eventual success.

Prepare for Hardship: Understanding that difficulty is inevitable helps founders persevere. Expecting emotional and operational challenges normalizes them.

Embrace Public Commitment: Making your startup public creates humiliation-based motivation that can be surprisingly effective.

My Takeaway

Persistence through adversity, rather than perfect execution, determines startup survival. Don’t give yourself escape routes. Burn the boats.

How do you prevent yourself from giving up? I’d love to hear at persdre@gmail.com.