Topic
Risk
Every resource in the archive tagged with risk.
28 resources
Letter2014 Letter to Shareholders
Jeff Bezos
Apr 2015 · 22 min read
The four traits of a dreamy business, and how Marketplace, Prime, and AWS each earned the label.
Essay7 Rejections
Brian Chesky
Jul 2015 · 1 min read
On June 26, 2008, our friend Michael Seibel introduced us to 7 prominent investors in Silicon Valley.
EssayMaking Money Isn't About Luck
Naval Ravikant
Mar 2019 · 5 min read
The four kinds of luck, and how to build a character that makes wealth find you.
EssayGuide to Career Planning, Part 2: Skills and education
Marc Andreessen
Oct 2007 · 17 min read
Which skills actually compound in a career — and what formal education is and isn't good for.
EssayGuide to Career Planning, Part 1: Opportunity
Marc Andreessen
Sep 2007 · 11 min read
Why planning a career is pointless — and why seizing opportunities beats following a plan.
EssayGuide to Career Planning, Part 3: Where to go and why
Marc Andreessen
Oct 2007 · 9 min read
How to pick the industry, company, and role where your opportunities will compound.
EssayAdvice for Ambitious 19 Year Olds
Sam Altman
4 min read
Build something real while staying around smart people, regardless of whether you choose college, a company, or a startup.
EssayOrganic Startup Ideas
Paul Graham
Apr 2010 · 4 min read
The best startup ideas come from problems you encounter in your own life, not from trying to guess what others want.
VideoMarc Andreessen on the 5 personality traits of an innovator
Marc Andreessen
Mar 2026 · 1 min read
The five personality traits that separate true innovators from everyone else.
EssayWhy We Prefer Founding CEOs
Ben Horowitz
9 min read
Founding CEOs outperform professional CEOs because they're more committed to the company's mission and better able to navigate uncertainty.
EssayThe Case for the Fat Startup
Ben Horowitz
9 min read
Lean startups can thrive by spending more strategically instead of cutting costs everywhere.
Letter2018 Letter to Shareholders
Jeff Bezos
Apr 2019 · 18 min read
Bezos arguing that risk-taking, not just revenue, must scale with company size.
EssayHow to Get Rich (Without Getting Lucky)
Naval Ravikant
Dec 2019 · 193 min read
Wealth is assets that earn while you sleep; money is how you transfer it; status is a zero-sum game you should avoid.
EssayUpside Risk
Sam Altman
2 min read
Power law returns mean angel investors should focus on upside risk—missing great deals—not downside protection.
EssayWhat I Wish Someone Had Told Me
Sam Altman
1 min read
How to start and scale ambitious things: recruiting, focus, speed, conviction, and fighting bureaucracy.
EssayHow To Invest In Startups
Sam Altman
9 min read
How to succeed as a startup investor by accessing deals, picking great founders, and getting them to choose you.
EssayHard Startups
Sam Altman
2 min read
Altman's core thesis: ambition is a recruiting and gravitational advantage, not a liability.
EssayLuck and the Entrepreneur
Marc Andreessen
Aug 2007 · 8 min read
Four distinct kinds of luck shape entrepreneurial success, each requiring different personality traits and behaviors to activate.
EssayAge and the Entrepreneur
Marc Andreessen
Aug 2007 · 11 min read
Andreessen's gloss on Simonton's finding that the 'quality ratio' of hits to misses stays roughly constant throughout a creative career.
EssayGuide to Startups, Part 6: How much funding is too little? Too much?
Marc Andreessen
Jul 2007 · 9 min read
How much funding a startup should raise: enough to reach product/market fit or full exploitation, with a buffer for setbacks.
EssayGuide to Startups, Part 5: The Moby Dick theory of big companies
Marc Andreessen
Jun 2007 · 10 min read
How to navigate unpredictable dealings with large companies as a startup founder.
EssaySuperlinear Returns
Paul Graham
Oct 2023 · 19 min read
In most fields, small differences in performance create outsized differences in results because of exponential growth and thresholds.
EssayWhy It's Safe for Founders to Be Nice
Paul Graham
Apr 2004 · 9 min read
Hackers' disobedience and rule-breaking are essential to their brilliance, not flaws to suppress.
EssayBlack Swan Farming
Paul Graham
Sep 2012 · 9 min read
Startup investing concentrates returns in a few massive winners, which look like bad ideas until they succeed.
EssayThe Anatomy of Determination
Paul Graham
Jan 2017 · 1 min read
Smart people take risks that look crazy only in hindsight; Newton's work in alchemy and theology were reasonable bets in his time.
EssaySchlep Blindness
Paul Graham
Jan 2012 · 4 min read
Great startup ideas fail because our unconscious mind avoids problems requiring tedious, difficult work.
EssayGuide to Startups, Part 2: When the VCs say no
Marc Andreessen
Jun 2007 · 11 min read
How to reduce layers of risk in your startup plan after VCs say no.
EssayGuide to Startups, Part 1: Why not to do a startup
Marc Andreessen
Jun 2007 · 10 min read
The emotional, logistical, and interpersonal reasons why starting a company is much harder than most people realize.