- The speaker tried to distill the concepts of frugality, obsession, and love into a small number of words
- They attempted to translate these words into emojis but couldn't find one for obsession
- Elon Musk is given as an example of someone with an obsessive focus and irrationality
- Musk invested his entire fortune into SpaceX, even though the first three rocket launches failed
- The speaker finds this level of irrationality wonderful.

As a founder and investor, YC Partner Paul Buchheit has seen his fair share of startups. In Startup School, he shared some of the common traits he's observed in successful founders.

Learn from experts and YC partners by signing up for Startup School at https://startupschool.org.

So this was actually where the focus frugality obsession and love thing came from, is I was actually trying to distill it down into a small enough number of words and then I was going to try to translate it into emoji but I failed at that part.

I couldn't figure out the I couldn't figure out what is the emoji for obsession.

But there is I think like this obsessive focus there's There's almost an irrationality in some of these founders.

Like the example that comes up as like the most insane version of it is probably like Elon Musk.

So I actually he came into Google, gave like a tech talk.

I want to say 2003 or something like that.

And it was after he had started SpaceX, but before they had done the first rocket launch.

And someone is like, what are you going to do if the rocket explodes when you launch it.

He's like, well, I have enough money for 3 launches, so I hope 1 of them succeeds.

Like, he literally plowed his entire fortune.

They managed to scrape together enough money for like a fourth rocket but if that fourth rocket hadn't gone there would be no SpaceX and Elon would be bankrupt right like he like that is insane I would not take all of my money and plow it into like some her brain rocket scheme right like That's like a level of irrationality that is, I think, wonderful.


Speaker 0: So this was actually where the focus frugality obsession and love thing came from, is I was actually trying to distill it down into a small enough number of words and then I was going to try to translate it into emoji but I failed at that part. I couldn't figure out the I couldn't figure out what is the emoji for obsession. They're like love I'm like okay a heart. But there is I think like this obsessive focus there's There's almost an irrationality in some of these founders. Like the example that comes up as like the most insane version of it is probably like Elon Musk.

So I actually he came into Google, gave like a tech talk. I want to say 2003 or something like that. And it was after he had started SpaceX, but before they had done the first rocket launch. And someone is like, what are you going to do if the rocket explodes when you launch it. He's like, well, I have enough money for 3 launches, so I hope 1 of them succeeds.

Like, he literally plowed his entire fortune. The first 3 blew up too, I think. Yeah, the first 3 did blow up. They managed to scrape together enough money for like a fourth rocket but if that fourth rocket hadn't gone there would be no SpaceX and Elon would be bankrupt right like he like that is insane I would not take all of my money and plow it into like some her brain rocket scheme right like That's like a level of irrationality that is, I think, wonderful.

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Paul Buchheit: What are some things successful founders have in common?