Paul Graham doesn't worry about valuation when investing in early-stage startups, only whether they could deliver massive upside. The speaker argues entrepreneurs and investors should chase transformative opportunities that create outsized returns, even at high prices, as long as they can still win.
Do great business at any price. Paul Graham had a tweet recently. He said that he has not even looked at the valuation of the companies he's recently invested in. So he's assuming that's an early-stage investment. He's like, okay, if this is a great company, I want to be in it because the rewards are going to be super, super, super huge if it works, and it's going to be zero if it doesn't. So who cares what the price is? And, you know, he's really got a point that if you're making those kinds of bets and you're looking for things that are really totally outside the bounds of reasonable probability, great, then you just care about getting in on those bets. You care a lot less about the price at which you do it. That doesn't mean you shouldn't put yourself in a position to not be able to win, but you don't necessarily rate it on the margin. So ask yourself, what is the business that's going to have a superb effect on you? What is the investment you can make? What is the sale that you can make? And then consider how you can get that done at any price, because it's going to be worth it for the growth of your business.
