Paul Graham says launching a startup is the ‘least efficient’ way to look cool

There are easier ways to impress people than spending years trying to keep a company alive, says Paul Graham.

“If you want to seem cool, like starting a startup is just about the least efficient way to do it,” Graham, the cofounder of Y Combinator, said in an interview with the accelerator that was released on Thursday. “It’s brutally hard, and you won’t seem cool for years.”

Graham is one of YC’s four founders and a prolific startup sage whose 2024 “founder mode” essay quickly entered the Silicon Valley zeitgeist. Launched in 2005, YC has backed some of best-known tech companies, including Airbnb, Stripe, Coinbase, DoorDash, Dropbox, Reddit…

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