Some of the most valuable lessons for founders are on YouTube. For free. Seriously. I’ve become a big fan of @daltonc 's conversations on @Standard_Cap and on Dalton + Michael with @mwseibel. Sales, fundraising, hiring, startup growth, product-market fit… they cover so many of the questions you face while building a company. If you haven’t watched the Standard Capital episode with @paultoo yet, I highly recommend it. Paul shared stories from YC’s early days, when many venture investors weren’t interested in its companies. One of his first investments was @Wufoo, an online form builder. He invested $50,000, and @paulg invested another $50,000. Wufoo was later acquired by @SurveyMonkey. Paul recalled making roughly 50 times his investment. He also explained the power law in startup investing: "a small number of successful investments can account for most of the returns". But what I took away from the talk was this: optimize for learning. Gain experience, understand what works, and improve your judgment along the way. That made me think about how often we wait for reassurance before acting. We want other investors to show interest. We want other founders to prove there’s a market. We want to feel ready before starting. I recognise that last one a little too well... I’ve always been a perfectionist (um, yes). Before starting something, I liked having a clear plan, more confidence, and preferably some evidence that it would actually work. The problem is that you can’t always get that reassurance in advance. Over time, I’ve learned that I don’t need to have everything figured out to begin. Sometimes taking the first step is how I figure out what to do next. That doesn’t make every risk worth taking of course. But waiting has a cost, too: you miss the experience that could help you make your next decision. 🎥 Standard Capital: Dalton Caldwell & Paul Buchheit “Why Paul Buchheit Invested in YC Founders Before Almost Anyone Else”