What has Paul Graham said about founder evangelism?

Paul Graham discussed several insights on founder entrepreneurship and user acquisition in multiple clips from the Founders episode titled "#275 Paul Graham".

For example, he spoke about the importance of making startups successful by doing things that don't scale initially, such as personally recruiting users or customers, and being aggressive about it. He used the term "Collison installation," referring to the founders of Stripe who would set up new users immediately upon agreement to try their service 1.

He also advised startups to focus on gradual growth, starting with a few users and caring deeply about making them happy, thereby growing the numbers considerably over time through compounding growth 2.

Paul Graham emphasized that finding the initial core users is crucial and a startup's big launch is less significant than believed. He suggested that getting users will always be a gradual process, as they have many other things that occupy their mind 3.

In terms of working with co-founders, he advised placing more emphasis on character and commitment rather than just ability, likening choosing a co-founder to choosing a marriage partner. It's particularly important because co-founder relationships intensify under the pressure of running a startup 4.

Paul Graham also noted that startups succeed or fail based on the qualities of the founders, independent of the state of the economy, and underlined that the right sort of people can triumph even during economic downturns 5.

Furthermore, he highlighted ideas should be treated more as hypotheses rather than blueprints, urging founders to iterate fast and be flexible, as being too determined on a fixed path could lead to a dead end 6.

Lastly, Paul Graham addressed the issue of perception versus reality when worried about competitors and stated that what kills companies most often is poor execution by the founders, not competition. He stressed the importance of focusing on the customer, not on the competition, and advocated for better attention to customer acquisition costs 6.