Y combinator board of directors
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October 2010
(I wrote this for Forbes, who asked me to write something about the qualities we look for in founders. In print they had to cut the last item because they didn't have room.) “Great Founders have a characteristic most employees, and college students lack. They learn how to “figure it out.” — Murray Johannsen. Those who wish to try their hand at making history books can study past and current Great Founders to figure out how they did what they did. In addition, you get hints and many insights into what it means to be an exceptional entrepreneur from your study. If you want to be great, study great people. You should primarily study them in the early days when the organization was just starting. Here is a list worth looking into, roughly divided into the century where they built their business. A growing list for sure. Expect great things from these Founders. The late Seyed Hossein Fallah Noshirvani was born into a religious family in 1902, in Noshirvan Kola, Babol, Iran. His path to prosperity was full of innumerable vicissitudes which eventually led to his becoming a famous steel and cotton merchant in Tehran. According to his journals, he bestowed most of his expenditure on civil and prosperous of different cities in Mazandaran Province, especially in Babol. The number of ineffaceable traces that he left is approximately reaching 50 outstanding ones. These traces can accurately reflect his beliefs on the Providence of the coming generations of the country. The most invaluable relic which was left by Late Mr. Noshirvani is the foundation of Babol Technical Institute constructed on 17 hectares of land. This benevolent man bequeathed all the land to the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology of Iran in trade for only a batch of rock candy. The constructed institute which was established in 1969 was then inaugurated in 1973 with three majors, namely Electronic, Civil and Mechanical Engineering only aft
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1. Determination
This has turned out to be the most important quality in startup founders. We thought when we started Y Combinator that the most important quality would be intelligence. That's the myth in the Valley. And certainly you don't want founders to be stupid. But as long as you're over a certain threshold of intelligence, what matters most is determination. You're going to hit a lot of obstacles. You can't be the sort of person who gets demoralized easily.
Bill Clerico and Rich Aberman of WePay are a good example. They're doing a finance startup, which means endless negotiations with big, bureaucratic companies. When you're starting a startup that depends on deals with big companies to exist, it often feels like they're trying to ignore you out of existence. But when Bill Clerico starts calling you, you may as well do what he asks, because he is not going away.
2. Flexibili •
Already Famous 21st Century Entrepreneurs
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The Founder (Biography)