Common Founder Issue
I tend to focus on startups that are very early stage. This typically means just a few passionate founders working 24/7 on an idea. Over the years I’ve struggled with how to identify the most promising teams before their businesses have had enough time to show traction.

Before even seeing this video, I recognized (from my own experience) that good teams just seem to get a lot done constantly...every time you talk with them they've gotten new things done. Even if the teams are inexperienced and their actions aren’t the most efficient sometimes, they have a bias towards action that you can sense just by being around them.

“One of the biggest advantages that startups have is execution speed.” - Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator

Update: Another fantastic tweet about this topic from the President of Y Combinator.

Update: One of the more famous early hustle stories is Airbnb.

Context
At this point in the video, Sam is discussing the value of intensity for startups.

Get Right To The Point
To get right to the point, go to minute 35:55 of this video.

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Thanks to these folks for helping us all learn faster
Y Combinator (@ycombinator)
Paul Graham (@paulg) of YC (@ycombinator)
Stanford University (@Stanford)
Sam Altman (@sama) of YC (@ycombinator)

Please let me and others know what you think about this topic
Email me privately at dave@switchyards.com or let's discuss publicly at @davempayne.