Real-World Scenarios & Access

Should I take a job first or start a startup right now?

A starting point

If you're young, undercapitalized, and thin on skills, take the job, but pick a fast-growing startup, not a comfy corporate seat, because you learn the craft by watching people do it. Working somewhere for two to three years buys you runway, a network, and pattern recognition that de-risks the leap. The exception: if you already have deep domain expertise and a problem you can't stop thinking about, waiting is just fear wearing a suit.

Go deeper

Read

✍️ Essay
Free Beginner

Before the Startup

From paulgraham.com by Paul Graham ~6,000 words

Why we picked it

The canonical primary source on the mindset shift before you start up, Graham's Stanford lecture directly addresses whether you need startup expertise and why the leap is more counterintuitive than it looks. Essential reading before you quit anything.

  • You don't need expertise in startups; you need expertise in your users, make something people want.
  • Startups will take over your life to a degree you cannot imagine, so go in eyes open, not romanticized.
  • The best ideas grow organically from being at the frontier of a field you already know, not from brainstorming 'a startup.'
  • Trust your instincts about people, but distrust them about startup mechanics, the whole thing is counterintuitive.
Open paulgraham.com →

Use

🎓 Course
Free Beginner

Startup School, Free Startup Course

From Y Combinator by Y Combinator ~7-week self-paced course

Why we picked it

The best free on-ramp for founders who feel 'too early' for a funded accelerator, it distils YC's thinking into a structured course and, critically, includes the largest co-founder matching platform anywhere. It builds the proof and the team you'll need before you ever apply for equity money.

  • A free ~7-week course (1-2 hours/week) with video lessons from YC partners on MVPs, funding, growth and launching.
  • Access to the world's largest co-founder matching platform, with 100,000+ matches made.
  • Includes a weekly update tool to track your growth and hold yourself accountable.
  • Built for anyone at the earliest stages, turning a side project into a company, or exploring whether to found at all.
Open startupschool.org →

People also ask

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