Paul Graham: Merely Talking to Investors Can Cripple a Startup
nptacek · x · 2026-11-02
Paul Graham endorses Scott Stevenson's essay 'There Really is No Time': most investors have no idea how much damage the mere distraction of talking to them does to a startup — even YC companies, which fundraise easier than most. The essay argues founders' time scarcity is real, not an illusion: building a startup is pushing a boulder uphill, and only doing the work only you can do counts as progress. Let go and it rolls back — stalled progress demotivates the team and exhausts time, energy, and money. A few days on the wrong thing can trigger weeks of treading water.
Related event: Paul Graham: Just Talking to Investors Harms Startups(3 posts)→
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