Paul Graham on why starting with a “small, intense fire" is the key to startup growth

“You’ve got to find people who want what you’re making A LOT. And that's necessarily going to be a small number at first. But that's ok. That’s how these giant things get started… You don’t have to do any better than Apple and Facebook.”

Apple started by selling just 500 Apple I computers. Today it’s the largest company in the world.

"You have to know who those first users are and how you're going to get them. Then you're going to sit down and just have a party with those first few users and focus entirely on them and making them super super happy."

He gives another example of a startup in a Y Combinator batch with a beta group of just one user: Sam Altman.

This startup was building a new mobile email client and their goal was to just make Sam happy. Sam uses email a lot on the go and knows all of the other email client options, so he is sufficiently demanding.

If they can build a product that makes Sam happy, odds are it will make lots of other people happy too.

"One of the things we tell startups in these extreme cases where they can make just one user happy is to act like a consultant. Act like Sam has hired you to make an email app just for him. All you have to do is make Sam happy--it can say 'Sam Altman' at the top of the screen. That's ok! Just so long as Sam would feel bummed if you stopped working on it. That's the test."

Full video: This Week in Startups “Y Combinator's Paul Graham sits down with Jason at LAUNCH Festival 2014” (Mar 2014)

P.S. We’ve put together a YouTube playlist with every Paul Graham insight we’ve ever shared. You can watch it here: "Best startup advice from Paul Graham"