&gt; Why did you work on getting insurance, getting incorporated, any of that, and why didn&#x27;t you wait to do that until you had something with validation or growth?<p>&quot;If I met an undergrad who knew all about convertible notes and employee agreements and (God forbid) class FF stock, I wouldn&#x27;t think &quot;here is someone who is way ahead of their peers.&quot; It would set off alarms. Because another of the characteristic mistakes of young founders is to go through the motions of starting a startup. They make up some plausible-sounding idea, raise money at a good valuation, rent a cool office, hire a bunch of people. From the outside that seems like what startups do. But the next step after rent a cool office and hire a bunch of people is: gradually realize how completely fucked they are, because while imitating all the outward forms of a startup they have neglected the one thing that&#x27;s actually essential: making something people want.<p>We saw this happen so often that we made up a name for it: playing house. Eventually I realized why it was happening. The reason young founders go through the motions of starting a startup is because that&#x27;s what they&#x27;ve been trained to do for their whole lives up to that point. Think about what you have to do to get into college, for example. Extracurricular activities, check. Even in college classes most of the work is as artificial as running laps.&quot;<p>&gt; <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.paulgraham.com&#x2F;before.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.paulgraham.com&#x2F;before.html</a>