Classic Paul Graham:

"We’ve now invested in enough companies that I’ve learned a trick for
determining which points are the counterintuitive ones: they’re the
ones I have to keep repeating."

1. Release Early.
2. Keep Pumping Out Features.
3. Make Users Happy.
4. Fear the Right Things.
5. Commitment Is a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.
6. There Is Always Room.
7. Don’t Get Your Hopes Up.
8. Speed, not Money.

Read the entire essay here.