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Paul Graham

also referred to as: pg

22 statements across 20 episodes · 10 bullish · 5 bearish · 20 people on the record · first statement Mar 14, 2016 by Matt Mazzeo · said 251 times in 91 episodes since 2015 · across every show →

Mentions by year

brought up most by Harry Stebbings (80), Geoff Ralston (18), Alexis Ohanian (14), Paul Buchheit (6), Kevin Hartz (6), Jason Calacanis (6), Drew Houston (6), Ali Partovi (6)

tap a year for its mentions
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0815201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
002.57.5515201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 14 mentions in 6 episodes 2 per episode
2025 21 mentions in 14 episodes 2 per episode
2024 31 mentions in 13 episodes 2 per episode
2023 7 mentions in 4 episodes 2 per episode
2022 14 mentions in 3 episodes 5 per episode
2021 2 mentions in 1 episode
2020 29 mentions in 10 episodes 3 per episode
2019 44 mentions in 12 episodes 4 per episode
2018 28 mentions in 8 episodes 4 per episode
2017 38 mentions in 10 episodes 4 per episode
2016 17 mentions in 7 episodes 2 per episode
2015 6 mentions in 3 episodes 2 per episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Paul Graham, oldest first

Mar 14, 2016 positive
Assertion Supported
Mazzeo: Y Combinator shares detailed background notes on investors with founders
“I think one of the fantastic things about YC and what Paul and Sam have built is that they, ah, they expose entrepreneurs to more information than ever before. That's not just the deal making terms. That's background on the investors that they're getting into …”
Matt Mazzeo Mar 14, 2016 ▶ 10:46 20VC: Lowercase's Matt Mazzeo on Being Chris Sacca's Partner and The 3 KPIs to Successful Investing
Jan 20, 2017
Insight
Taggar: Venture Investors Need Operational Experience to Develop True Founder Empathy
“I'm a pretty strong believer that operational experience is pretty important to have in investors, and the reason is, and I think this is another thing that made sort of Paul and sort of Jessica great founders of YC or great investors of Y Cominature is that t…”
Harj Taggar Jan 20, 2017 ▶ 15:56 20VC: Biggest Takeaways From Working With Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston, Why You Should Put Off Hiring For As Long As Possible & Why Seed Stage Investing Is All About Optimising The Top Of The Funnel with Harj Taggar, Founder & CEO @ Triplebyte
Jan 20, 2017 positive
Insight
Paul Graham: Optimal Corporate Structure Resembles a Holding Company of Autonomous Units
“He genuinely believed that the optimal structure for a giant corporation is one that's more like a holding company that's, like, composed up of lots of more autonomous units are each doing well, and each of those units has operational control and is, you know,…”
Harj Taggar Jan 20, 2017 ▶ 13:21 20VC: Biggest Takeaways From Working With Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston, Why You Should Put Off Hiring For As Long As Possible & Why Seed Stage Investing Is All About Optimising The Top Of The Funnel with Harj Taggar, Founder & CEO @ Triplebyte
Mar 12, 2018 positive
Assertion Supported
Taussig: MBAs created tens of billions in startup market cap since 2008
“The counter argument that an MBA disqualifies you from participating meaningfully in the startup ecosystem is just not true. And there's actually just in my class in business school, Harvard business school, 2009, you had rent the runway, thread up cloud flare…”
Alex Taussig Mar 12, 2018 ▶ 30:22 20VC: Lightspeed's Alex Taussig on VC Risk Mentality, The Current State of Retail & The Mechanics of Cash Flow
Mar 26, 2018 positive
Insight
Loftus: Startups should ignore Paul Graham and talk to corp dev early
“And so I would say first, I disagree with the premise that the title of the blog post gives, which is that you should never talk to corporate development. I think the second premise, which is you shouldn't do that because you should be focused on building your…”
James Loftus Mar 26, 2018 ▶ 10:48 20VC: How Great VCs Handle Themselves In An M&A Process, Why M&A Has Become The Primary Method of Exit & How The Best M&A Teams Operationalise Their Process with James Loftus, Corporate Development Lead @ Square
May 27, 2019 positive
Assertion Supported
Ralston: Paul Graham's Viaweb was the first web SaaS business
“They had created really the first SAS business On the web at the time, which was an online shopping cart.”
Geoff Ralston May 27, 2019 ▶ 5:42 20VC: Y Combinator's New President, Geoff Ralston on The Single Most Important Perspective An Investor Can Provide A Founder, The Biggest Lessons From Working Alongside Paul Graham & Why You Will Lose As An Investor If You "Profile Invest"
Sep 9, 2019 positive
Opinion
Paul Graham's key innovation was backing young hackers rejected by others
“Paul Graham's fundamental innovation and how he changed our entire world is he bet on folks that others weren't willing to, the kind of young hacker who can build and learn everything else. And I really just believe in that.”
Ilya Sukhar Sep 9, 2019 ▶ 19:12 20VC: Matrix's Ilya Sukhar on How The Seed Ecosystem Could Be Optimised, Why The Bar For The Break-Out Series A Has Risen & The Art of Effective Referencing
Oct 25, 2019 positive
What-if
Reddit Needed Alexis Ohanian's Charisma to Get Into Y Combinator
“You know, Alexis then and now has always been a very, like, high charisma person, an easy conversation, kind of a charming, funny person, and so in the early days of Reddit, even in that story I just told you, those skills were really important to us because I…”
Steve Huffman Oct 25, 2019 ▶ 5:14 20VC: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on Scaling Teams; What Works and What Does Not, A CEO's Relationship with Stress and Managing It & How To Structure Internal Decision-Making Effectively
Oct 25, 2019 neutral
Assertion Supported
Paul Graham Accepted Reddit Founders Into YC Conditional on a Pivot
“We were not accepted into Y Combinator. And the way Reddit came about was basically Paul told us, hey, we really like you guys. We just don't like that idea. So if you're willing to work on something else, you can be in YC.”
Steve Huffman Oct 25, 2019 ▶ 4:33 20VC: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on Scaling Teams; What Works and What Does Not, A CEO's Relationship with Stress and Managing It & How To Structure Internal Decision-Making Effectively
Nov 1, 2019
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Paul Graham advised Webflow to stop seed fundraising at $350K
“And we really just tempted to, I think we went back to PG all Graham and sort of said, we only raised, we're kind of targeting a million dollars, but we only raised 350 so far. And he sort of told us this perspective is like, Hey, look, if this is like stressi…”
Vlad Magdalin Nov 1, 2019 ▶ 17:15 20VC: Webflow's Vlad Magdalin on The Journey To Breakeven and Raising A Monster $72m Series A, The Single Most Important Question To Ask When Determining Which Investor To Select & The Challenges of Founders Angel Investing
Dec 17, 2020 negative
Opinion
Hsu claims 95% of Y Combinator advice is in Paul Graham essays
“Almost everything YC tells you is available online. If you just go read every PG essay, you know, you could probably become a YC partner, basically, if you read every essay, and just maybe that's being a little bit uncharitable, but, you know, I think you coul…”
David Hsu Dec 17, 2020 ▶ 10:13 20VC: Retool Founder, David Hsu on Why YC Is Helpful Pre Product-Market Fit but Not Post and Why VCs Are Not Helpful Pre-Product Market-Fit but are Post, Why it is Difficult to Become Unprofitable if You Set Yourself Up For Profitability Early & Why VC Th
Oct 18, 2022
Assertion Supported
Paul Graham required Drew Houston to find a co-founder for YC
“I got an email from Paul saying, Hey, like your idea, but you need a co-founder. If you're going to get into YC.”
Drew Houston Oct 18, 2022 ▶ 3:54 Dropbox CEO Drew Houston: How to Pick a Co-Founder; Steve Jobs' Attempt to Buy Dropbox | 20VC #938 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 20, 2023 positive
Opinion
Franceschetti: Paul Graham and Keith Rabois excel at explaining complex ideas simply
“You see people like Paul Graham or Keith or Boyce, right? They are some of the greatest at expressing a very complicated concept with few words in something that I call it the grammar rule by something that my grandma could understand.”
Matteo Franceschetti Nov 20, 2023 ▶ 29:14 Matteo Franceschetti: The Ultimate Hiring Playbook: Five Questions to Ask Every New Hire | E1084 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 22, 2024 positive
Disclosure
Dines: Paul Graham Was Instrumental to His Thinking on Building UiPath
“Well, the guy that I think I learned the most in my formative years is Paul Graham. I've never met him in person. But it was instrumental to my thinking of building a company, and this is one guy that I would like to have on the board for sure.”
Daniel Dines Apr 22, 2024 ▶ 1:43:25 Daniel Dines: From a Dollar a Day to Romania's Richest Man| Happiness, Wealth, Risk and more | E1143 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 22, 2024
Disclosure
Hartz: Paul Graham rejected his exploding term sheet for Airbnb's seed round
“Little known secret is Keith, Javed and I gave an exploding term sheet to Airbnb, and Paul Graham said no bueno, and teed off on us.”
Kevin Hartz Jul 22, 2024 ▶ 37:25 Kevin Hartz: "How I Lost Airbnb at Seed Because of an Exploding Term Sheet" | E1180 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 14, 2024 positive
What-if
Nejatian: Internet commerce is weirder than if Yahoo Stores had won
“Commerce on the internet is slightly more weird than it would be if Yahoo had won. Yahoo Stores had won, which is like the Paul Graham product. I like Paul Graham a lot, but I'm very glad that his software at Yahoo did not win.”
Kaz Nejatian Aug 14, 2024 ▶ 46:30 Kaz Nejatian: How Shopify Built a $90BN Business to Last 100 Years | E1189 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 11, 2024 neutral
Opinion
McCabe: Paul Graham's 'Founder Mode' concept is clever branding for existing practices
“I think it was really, like, acute and fun branding for it. A thing that anyone who's built the company has deployed since the start of companies that, you know, there's nothing new about it.”
Eoghan McCabe Oct 11, 2024 ▶ 19:59 Eoghan McCabe, CEO @Intercom: Freedom of Speech, Censorship and Government Control | E1213 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 16, 2024 negative
Opinion
Perret: Using 'Founder Mode' to undervalue great executives is completely wrong
“First is, one way to read it is to, like, deeply undervalue great execs. And I think that that's totally wrong.”
Zach Perret Oct 16, 2024 ▶ 19:19 Zach Perret: Why ‘Founder Mode’ is the Most Dangerous Blog Post for Founders | E1215 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 1, 2024 negative
Opinion
Tenev: Paul Graham's 'Founder Mode' essay is vague like a horoscope
“My take on it was, I think it's a little bit like a horoscope in the sense that it was so vague in general. That everyone kind of thinks that it's relevant to them.”
Vlad Tenev Nov 1, 2024 ▶ 20:22 Vlad Tenev, Co-Founder & CEO @Robinhood: The GameStop Saga & The Future of AI | E1222 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 27, 2025 negative
Opinion
Paul Graham's 'Founder Mode' Is Just Basic Management Hygiene
“I read Paul's blog. I feel like he was describing just good management hygiene, and, but then he called it founder mode. I feel like digging into details, making sure you're, you trust, but you verify is what all good CEOs must do.”
Wayne Ting Jan 27, 2025 ▶ 37:32 Wayne Ting, CEO @Lime: From Losing $3 on Every $1 to $90M in EBITDA | E1252 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025
Disclosure
Taneja passed on Coinbase's seed round introduced by Paul Graham
“So I'll never forget that one of my big messes when Paul Graham asked me to look at the seed round of Coinbase, and I said to myself, a Bitcoin ATM? What is that? I had no idea what this industry was about to become. Like, I mean, I, it still haunts me.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 10:51 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 20, 2026 negative
Insight
Ryan Petersen: Founders Should Ignore VC Explanations for Rejections
“PG said his advice to founders was always, you should hear the no, but ignore the why, because the odds of them telling the truth multiplied by the odds of them being correct are so low that you're just like very little signal in what investors tell you about …”
Ryan Petersen Jun 20, 2026 ▶ 54:35 Flexport CEO: Two Questions Every Founder Needs to Ask · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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