# The Main Function: How to go from startup dream to reality

**Author:** Garry Tan
**Type:** Video
**URL:** https://www.ycombinator.com/library/JG-the-main-function-how-to-go-from-startup-dream-to-reality
**YouTube ID:** jNJQTIUyT9Y

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It can be very easy for founders to fall into a trap of denial in the early stages of a startup’s life. But in order for
your company to really take off, it’s critical to be honest with yourself and to build a community of friends and
collaborators who are willing to challenge groupthink.

In the first episode of our new series “The Main Function,” YC President and CEO Garry Tan explains how founders must
face hard truths in order to take their company from dream to reality.

## Transcript

there's a moment in a Founder's brain when you know your startup is gonna die you see the future but the future is looking like darkness [Music] in the movie Encanto there's a magical character named Bruno who can tell the future but it's always bad news why don't we want to talk about Bruno because we don't want to hear it if you think about it that means people are okay with lying to themselves and if you lie to yourself you lie to others you

are doomed to failure today we're talking about how to avoid that failure by clearly facing it head on and you'll hear how I fail to heed that call in my own startup and how you can avoid that let's get started [Music] Miyamoto Musashi was a famous and fierce swordsman in Japan in the 17th century he said truth is not what you want it to

be it is what it is and you must Bend to its power or live a lie in 2010 I lived a lie and my startup posturous paid the price we started in 2008 growing quickly our startup was up and to the right it was about two straight years of back to back 20 to 30 percent monthly growth about 10x yearly growth and it seemed like it was going to continue forever but suddenly in the middle of 2010 our growth went flat now there were many different reasons for it we didn't scale

our servers I didn't turn into a people leader and I wanted to keep coding but most importantly the competitive scenario changed the truth is we're going to die but I couldn't accept it because I was avoiding the truth I looked for statistics that were indicating we might still be okay it was just a dip we had investors and employees and we got them to believe what could it mean if I was wrong my whole world view would have fallen apart

do you remember that scene in The Truman Show where Truman realizes he's on a set Truman's blinded the reality that everything in his world is constructed for him his reality is merely a reality TV show he wanders into a random building and sees something totally unexpected in that moment he was on a set so too must have found her who is failing realize their whole understanding has to

change what do you do when the thing you believed is no longer true well when confronted with different outcomes you have to change your model at YC we say don't die and that's a truism because it focuses you on the beliefs that you have that might kill you fear of death can paralyze you into believing things that are no longer true overcome your fear of death as a company and you can dedicate yourself to the truth

[Music] what's confusing and counter-intuitive about all of this is to what degree it's useful to believe in a Dreamland before it happens in 2013 when Bitcoin first appeared it was normal for people to be talking about it in a virtually empty room like this one the topic I want to talk about today is Bitcoin neutrality this is partially why it's so hard for Founders to come back to reality you got to believe that you'll reach the promised land but you must know that

you're not at your destination yet you must know this Dreamland kind of like that empty room of Bitcoin but you also have to realize that Dreamland is not all there is [Music] the famous psychologist Daniel kaneman told a story once about his visit to Vancouver Island he said we found an attractive but deserted Motel on a little traveled Road in the middle of the forest the owners were a Charming young couple who had used their life

savings to buy this Motel which had been built a dozen years earlier they told us without irony or self-consciousness that they had been able to buy it cheap because six or seven previous owners had failed to make a go of it they felt no need to explain why they expected to succeed where six or seven others had failed Madness is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result this is where confronting reality matters Founders and creators should be highly aware of the

idea maze what is the set of things that have been tried if you're trying to commercialize some technology know who came before you and what they tried don't do exactly what one ten or thousands of people have already done surely you must have some new approach some reason why it will work for you it might be Tech it might be the way you approach customers it might even be as simple as we know these people and other people don't but you should know what

that reason is otherwise you'll be just like kaneman's Charmed young Motel owning couple ignoring reality giving in to the madness the real key story here I think is that you've got to find a way to immerse yourself with both Dreamland and reality and make a bridge between those two things here's Ray dalio talking about one way this happens whatever success I've had in life has had to do more with

my ability to know how to deal with my not knowing than even the things I know so it that changed everything it meant that I wanted to bring in the smartest independent thinkers to disagree with me so that we could disagree well and that developed a unique culture the philosopher Carl popper talked about scientific knowledge being based not in certainty but falsifiability through experimentation and criticism you would discover the truth as a single person with a dream you can live in a Dreamland

of your own creation but if you surround yourself with smart people who don't engage in group think you can promote and develop more accurate and robust mental models that then allow you to have an impact act on reality and then you can really change the world that's the Alchemy going from the Dreamland of an individual to creating the reality with a group of your smartest friends that my friends is the real magic and that's what I want for you that's it for this week I'll see you

next week foreign
