10 Essential Paul Graham Essays That Define The Future Of Startups (2025 Updates)

Paul Graham remains one of the most influential figures in the global startup ecosystem, even years after stepping back from the day-to-day operations of Y Combinator (YC), the accelerator he co-founded. As of late 2024 and early 2025, his primary focus has shifted back to his foundational passion: writing. His recent essays continue to provide the intellectual scaffolding for a new generation of founders, offering timeless wisdom applied to the current technological and cultural climate.

The latest essays, such as "What to Do" (March 2025) and "The Origins of Wokeness" (January 2025), confirm that Graham is not merely retired; he is operating as a full-time, high-impact public intellectual for Silicon Valley and beyond. This article dives deep into the man, his seminal work, and the recent ideas that are currently shaping the strategies of founders applying to the YC Winter 2025 batch and beyond.

Paul Graham: Complete Biography and Key Milestones

Paul Graham is an English-American computer scientist, programmer, writer, entrepreneur, and investor. He is best known as the co-founder of Y Combinator and for his influential essays on technology, startups, and culture.

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• Born: November 13, 1964, in Weymouth, England.
• Education: B.A. from Cornell University (1986), Ph.D. in Computer Science from Harvard University (1990), and studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence.
• Early Career (Lisp): Authored the seminal books *On Lisp* (1993) and *ANSI Common Lisp* (1995), establishing himself as a key figure in the Lisp programming community.
• First Startup (Viaweb): In 1995, he co-founded Viaweb with Robert Morris. Viaweb was the first software as a service (SaaS) company, enabling users to build online stores. It was sold to Yahoo! in 1998 for $49 million, where it became Yahoo! Store.
• Y Combinator Founding: In 2005, he co-founded Y Combinator (YC) with Jessica Livingston, Robert Morris, and Trevor Blackwell. YC pioneered the modern startup accelerator model, providing seed funding, mentorship, and a network.
• Key Role at YC: Served as a full-time partner and visionary until 2014, establishing the core philosophy encapsulated in the motto "Make something people want."
• Current Status: Stepped back from day-to-day operations to focus on writing essays, which are considered required reading for ambitious founders globally.

The New Era of Graham: Analyzing 2024–2025’s Most Important Essays

Since transitioning away from the daily grind of venture capital, Paul Graham’s output has become more reflective, yet still intensely practical. His latest essays are critical reading for anyone navigating the current market, especially those in the AI and deep-tech sectors. His insights are often cited by YC partners like Sam Altman, emphasizing their continued relevance.

1. Superlinear Returns: The Key to Exponential Growth (October 2023)

The concept of "Superlinear Returns" is perhaps Graham's most important recent contribution to startup theory. It describes a phenomenon where the output is disproportionately greater than the input. In essence, 1+1 equals 3 or more.

He argues that the biggest successes in life and business come from things that offer superlinear returns, such as:

• Knowledge and Ideas: Learning compounds. The more you know, the easier it is to learn new, related things.
• Reputation and Network: A good reputation doesn't just attract a proportional number of opportunities; it attracts the best opportunities.
• Product Quality: Graham famously states that if your product is only half as good as a competitor’s, you don’t get half the customers—you get zero. Superior quality yields superlinear customer acquisition.

The takeaway for founders is to ruthlessly prioritize activities that compound, focusing on building a product that is not just better, but *superlinearly* better, to escape the trap of linear, incremental growth.

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2. What to Do: A Guide for the Ambitious (March 2025)

Released in early 2025, "What to Do" addresses the fundamental question facing high-achievers: how to spend your time effectively to maximize impact. This essay is a spiritual successor to his earlier work, offering a more mature perspective on ambition.

Graham suggests that the best path is not to follow a predetermined, rigid plan, but to follow your curiosity and work on things that genuinely interest you and seem important. He emphasizes the following points:

• Following Curiosity: Great work often comes from following a genuine, unforced interest, which naturally leads to working on hard problems that others overlook.
• Working on Hard Problems: The hardest problems are often the ones that yield the greatest value. The act of solving a truly difficult problem inherently generates superlinear returns in knowledge and reputation.
• Avoiding Distractions: He cautions against the allure of the "treadmill" of conventional success and the distractions of modern political or cultural upheavals, urging readers to focus on creating value.

For startup founders, this is a call to return to the core YC philosophy: solve real problems, not just chase trends. It’s a reminder that the best ideas often seem frighteningly ambitious or unconventional at first.

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The Enduring Y Combinator Philosophy: Two Words That Matter

While Paul Graham is no longer involved in the day-to-day selection of startups, his core principles are the DNA of Y Combinator, which continues to be the world's most influential startup accelerator. These principles are repeated in every batch and form the foundation of YC's success with companies like Airbnb, Dropbox, and Stripe.

The Two-Word Philosophy: "Make Something People Want"

This is the official motto of Y Combinator and the single most important piece of advice Graham has ever given. It sounds simple, but it is counterintuitive for many founders who focus too much on technology, funding, or press. The relentless focus on product-market fit—creating something that solves a genuine, painful problem for a specific group of users—is the ultimate test of a startup’s viability.

The Founder Trait: "Relentlessly Resourceful"

In his 2009 essay, Graham distilled the essential quality of a successful founder into two words: "relentlessly resourceful." This trait goes beyond mere intelligence or hard work. It describes a founder's ability to overcome any obstacle, find a way around any problem, and never give up. It is the grit required to navigate the inevitable challenges of a startup journey, from technical bugs to funding crises.

The combination of these two phrases—a clear product goal ("Make something people want") and the necessary personal drive ("Relentlessly resourceful")—is the blueprint for success that Paul Graham created and that Y Combinator continues to execute. His recent essays serve as philosophical updates to this blueprint, ensuring that the wisdom remains fresh and applicable to the challenges of the 2025 technology landscape.