Paul Graham：Startups in 13 Sentences, Excerpt 6

But it's more than that. A culture of cheapness keeps companies young in something like the way exercise keeps people young. 9. Get ramen profitable. "Ramen profitable" means a startup makes just enough to pay the founders' living expenses. It's not rapid prototyping for business models (though it can be), but more a way of hacking the investment process. Once you cross over into ramen profitable, it completely changes your relationship with investors. It's also great for morale. 10. Avoid distractions. Nothing kills startups like distractions. The worst type are those that pay money: day jobs, consulting, profitable side-projects. The startup may have more long-term potential, but you'll always interrupt working on it to answer calls from people paying you now.

Source： https://paulgraham.com/13sentences.html
Locator：Essay, additional excerpt 6 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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