Paul Graham on Start-ups, Innovation, and Creativity

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 August 2009

⏱️ 63 minutes

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Summary

Paul Graham, essayist, programmer and partner in the y-combinator talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about start-ups, innovation, and creativity. Graham draws on his experience as entrepreneur and investor to discuss the current state of the start-up world and how that world has changed due to improved technology that makes it easier to start a software company. Graham talks about his unusual venture firm, the y-combinator, and how he and his partners work with start-ups to get them ready for more advanced funding. Along the way, Graham discusses why hackers are like painters and how to survive high school.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:12.5	I'm your host Russ Roberts of George Mason University and Stanford University's Hoover
0:17.3	Institution.
0:18.7	Our website is econtalk.org, where you can subscribe, find other episodes, comment on this podcast,
0:25.8	and find links to other information related to today's conversation.
0:29.9	Our email address is mailadicontalk.org.
0:33.6	We'd love to hear from you.
0:38.6	Today is July 17th and my guest is Paul Graham, essayist, programmer, and programming
0:44.3	language designer.
0:45.3	He's the author of among other books, hackers, and painters and a partner in the Y Combinator
0:51.0	Paul.
0:52.0	Welcome to Econ Talk.
0:53.0	Oh, thank you.
0:54.0	Let's start with the Y Combinator.
0:55.0	Tell us what that is.
0:56.0	It's a venture capital firm, but what's different about it?
0:58.3	Why did you get involved in it?
0:59.8	Well, we wouldn't use the term venture capital firm to describe it, because in the
1:04.1	business venture capital firm means something very specific.
1:07.1	It means you raise a couple hundred million dollars from university endowments or something
1:11.5	like that, and then you have a bunch of venture partners who sit on boards and stuff like
1:17.8	that.
	...

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