Beating the Averages

BlogPaul GrahamJun 14, 2003

AI Summary

PG's case study from Viaweb: they used Lisp while competitors used Perl/C, and that single technical choice gave them a sustained advantage no competitor could match. The lesson generalizes: a powerful technical advantage compounds. Pick tools accordingly.

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Want to start a startup? Get funded by Y Combinator. !Image 6 April 2001, rev. April 2003 _(This article is derived from a talk given at the 2001 Franz Developer Symposium.)_ In the summer of 1995, my friend Robert Morris and I started a startup called Viaweb. Our plan was to write software that…

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