Craig Weiss @craigzLiszt Twitter profile

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Craig Weiss

1 month

If you want to make a lot of money in tech, join a series B company that’s just starting to hit pmf. Max out on equity, and after 2-4 years exercise all of your options. Rinse & repeat 1-5 times.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

9 days

The smartest people I’ve ever met had math backgrounds but ultimately switched to tech.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 month

If you want deep technical knowledge, work at a big company. If you want to be a god-tier generalist, work at a startup.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

I tried YC cofounder matching once, and got overwhelmed by thirsty ‘idea guys’ looking for a dev to build for them. Eng founders are a rare catch, it seems

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

29 days

If you're working at a startup and everyone seems too chill, it's probably a sign things won't work out

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 month

- My worst internship: @Facebook - Learned SWE fundamentals: @Google - Coolest but slowest environment: @NASA - Pretty fun, but 2nd class Eng culture: @Snap - Most fun; Built conviction to join a startup: @Lyft

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

18 days

You really need to be obsessed in order to succeed. Not being obsessed is a skill issue.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

24 days

Warm intros are overrated. Basically every major life progression of mine involved cold emails & cold calls.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

22 days

If you want to change the world, work-life-balance doesn’t exist

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

Former engineers who can sell make god-tier founders

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

"Who tf works on weekends" Winners do.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

The YC application deadline is tomorrow. Prior to getting accepted, I literally applied within the final minutes leading up to the deadline. If you’re thinking about YC, don’t be discouraged by applying last minute.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

26 days

You don't need a PM for your 1-15 person company. And don't work for a founder who's just a glorified PM in disguise.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 month

Urgency is the ultimate drug for productivity.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

30 days

If you’re a college student trying to figure out which companies to intern at, my recommendation is this: 1.) intern at a big company like FAANG, or a recently IPOed company with a strong Eng culture 2.) intern at a unicorn 3.) intern at a super early stage startup

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

13 days

There should be a video game where you start as a homeless person on 6th and mission st in SF, and your goal is to become the richest person in the world. Oh and you have 1 year to get there.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

12 days

If you love what you’re building, working 80 hours/week is easy. If you want to be competitive, working 80 hrs/wk is table stakes.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

11 days

Life is just a first person resource management game with really solid graphics

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

9 days

I would add, a close second tended to be those with a physics background that ultimately switched to tech as well

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 year

A common piece of startup advice is to stay lean. I think very soon we’re going to see this to the extreme. Get ready for a ton of single digit startup teams generating >1m revenue w/ pmf

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

7 days

The reason cs is so difficult to teach is because the field keeps changing so rapidly.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

18 days

One of the early indicators of a successful startup founder is their tolerance for solving unsexy problems. Aka unsexy maxxing

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 month

I coughed on the plane and it triggered a chain reaction of shy coughers who only felt comfortable coughing in solidarity. I’m doing god’s work

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

28 days

Be wary of trusting investors too much — at the end of the day they are glorified poker players

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

9 days

The irony of crypto is that while it's all about decentralization, it actually ends up centralizing all the grifters.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 month

Curse of being a startup founder: Enjoying a vacation is nearly impossible.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

24 days

When I was at @snapchat , some of my coworkers expressed fears that I could get fired if I wore a @facebook shirt to the office. But I’m a rebel. Every morning before work, I’d smoke some meat and prepare my intern uniform — a concealed fb t-shirt underneath a snapchat hoodie.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

29 days

be the person that people envy but also deeply respect

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

23 days

If you crave validation from others you’ll never truly be free

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

26 days

One lesser known perk of joining YC is that even to this day -- 2.5 years after my batch -- I can still meet with my group partners and obtain valuable feedback and advice on the current direction of my startup. YC is for life.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

Building a startup is not a contrarian thing to do anymore

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

16 days

If you want to be an incredible solo-founder, you'll probably want the following traits: - High conscientiousness - High openness to experience - High extraversion - Low to moderate Agreeableness - Low Neuroticism

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

23 days

If you have less than 10 engineers at your startup and you’re worried about code reviews, you’re doing it wrong.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

7 days

Computer science is not science. Data science is not science. And political science is most definitely not science.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

17 days

You would think that SF night life would be more active since nighttime is the safest time for tech bros (like me) to leave their apartment — no direct sunlight

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

People fail to realize that building a superior team is a moat.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

15 days

Finally, a Siri I’ll actually use

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

19 days

Do things that don’t scale — But only if scalability is eventually possible

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

SF coffee chat culture: If someone agrees to meetup for coffee, there’s still a 66% chance they won’t meet up for coffee 🫠

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 month

One way to build defensibility against AGI is to build a business that relies heavily on human labor

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 month

A startup that thinks they’re a big company and acts like a big company is destined for failure

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

28 days

There’s more to life than just building your startup — you can invest in other people’s startups

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

29 days

In tech, it's super easy to stagnate. One of the best ways to avoid stagnation is to join a startup. The learning velocity is way higher and you will grow with the startup. When I was at @scale_AI , I saw the transition of ICs into VPs. This just isn't likely at a big company.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

14 days

What's your "go to" note taking app? Or your "go to" visual diagramming or mind-mapping app?

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 month

The goalpost for AGI seems to just keep getting pushed back further and further. Honestly, gpt-4o behaves so “human-like”, I wouldn’t argue with you if you genuinely believed AGI is here

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 month

Be prepared to unlearn 70% of what you know when you go from a big company to a startup.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

Cofounder traits you should optimize for: - Intelligence - Industriousness - Integrity - Optimism - Openness to experience - Agreeableness

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

Standard job progression in tech: 1) software engineer 2) startup founder 3) investor 4) full time tweeter

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

23 days

During a gold rush, Don’t sell shovels. Be the gold that gets shoveled

kache

@yacineMTB

24 days

during a gold rush don't sell shovels BECOME the shovel

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

8 days

What are the best co-working spots in SF for startup founders?

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 month

Nutrition should be a mandatory class taught in school.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

Autonomous agents are already changing the course of human history. Expect 100s of >$1B ai agent startups popping up in the next 5-10 years

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 year

Low key want Greg to win in the succession finale

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

15 days

I swear, the number of bugs on my favorite products increases dramatically during intern season

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

I’d rather stand by my principles than avoid making new enemies

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

20 days

I thought SF summers were supposed to be cold

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

The longer you have your skin in the game building a startup, the more immune you are to startup lows. Building a startup is hard, but it also hardens you

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

I wish @MKBHD would review all of the broken SaaS out there so we can live in an era where B2B is held to the same standard as consumer products

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

26 days

Don’t conflate a good fundraiser with a good startup founder — even though oftentimes a good startup founder is also a good fundraiser.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

My mom thinks I work in IT 🙁

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 month

We all have an intrinsic responsibility to maximize positive impact for the human race until the day we die. Those in power who don’t understand this should step aside for others to take their place.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 month

What’s the deal with oat milk?

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

27 days

Shoot for the stars — But don’t blindly crash into the sun

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

Man I wish just reading 20 textbooks would make one the most cracked, cooked, smoked, steamed and slightly seasoned startup flounder out there… But reading textbooks won’t teach you how to build a great company. Execution is everything

atharva

@k7agar

2 months

i keep saying this someone should make a website that just list 20 textbooks to get you ahead of 99% of people in that field.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

14 days

All of these lime scooters in SF look like they’ve been physically abused

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

Build for yourself first

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 year

Everyone is wrong - the biggest winner of the ai revolution is not @nvidia or @OpenAI , it’s balenciaga

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

6 days

There are people who are going to judge you no matter what you do. The sooner you learn to not give a shit about them and embrace your authentic self, the happier you'll be.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

A good case for being extroverted: If you’re socially avoidant, people will try to tell your story for you.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

There's about 6 hours left. Still plenty of time :)

Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

The YC application deadline is tomorrow. Prior to getting accepted, I literally applied within the final minutes leading up to the deadline. If you’re thinking about YC, don’t be discouraged by applying last minute.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

3 months

Watching the W24 demo day makes me reminiscent of when I went through the very same thing 2 years ago in the W22 batch. The urgency that going through YC generates is incredible. Inspired to find new ways to emulate that urgency

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

13 days

I’m 29. If you’re in your teens, read this:

Dan Go

@FitFounder

14 days

I'm 44. If you're still in your 20's, read this:

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 month

@_calebanthony Nah, there’s a huge need for 10x Eng generalists. It’s a superpower

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 month

This is my internship experience tl;dr

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

What we’re missing right now is a live action HBO comedy about Silicon Valley

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 month

@clawrence Depends. When you work at a company you have amazing internal signal. Not doing so great? Leave after 1-2 years and diversify your portfolio by joining a new series b company. Figure out what you missed when you selected this former company. Retro it and correct for next time.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

I figured out what I want in my first hire: - must be smelly - types with 2 fingers - avoids eye contact - avoids sunlight If this is you, dm me

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

The best tweets are the ones that require exactly two brain cells to understand

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

7 days

I’m excited for prompt science though

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

From what I can gather, the highest quality tweets are crafted: a) when you’re out on a long walk b) or when you’re stuck on the toilet

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

Does anyone actually have an ai girlfriend?

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 year

Wild theory: but the best time to build a startup is right now. If the democratization of ai/ml continues to expand at an exponential rate, the barrier to entry of building a startup will become incredibly low. While this will likely translate into profoundly positive economic

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

If you aren’t tweeting than you obviously aren’t making progress on your company

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

10 days

Pretty cool, scale ai is transforming into a generational brand

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

Memo vs pitch deck? When fundraising, most investors will not waste their time reading a memo. Pitch decks are quick and easily digestible - they win by a landslide. But do write a memo for yourself. It will help you identify key knowledge gaps and hold yourself accountable.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 year

100% true - when choosing a cofounder, early employee or company to invest in, make sure the people in question are industrious. Otherwise the effects of lazy people will metastasize and spoil the entire culture. #startups #hustle #Entrepreneurship

Alexandr Wang

@alexandr_wang

1 year

working hard is infectious being around people who are always working makes it shockingly easy to work really hard inversely, surrounding yourself with leisurely or lazy people will make it nearly impossible to work hard choose your own adventure—but be intentional

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

SF is so back! Talent will always leave the city, but the best talent stays and the next generation of talent will always be drawn in.

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

You may not be interested in RSA but RSA is interested in you... Or at least that's how it feels living in SF right now

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 month

I had a dream where hitting snooze pushed back all of my meetings by 5mins and it freaked me the fuck out. Then I woke up

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 month

@kiran Might be necessary to do this first before becoming an investor. I’ve seen a lot of people take on this sort of career path

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months

Despite the stray fentanyl needles, foul odors, excessive homelessness, human droppings, and feral pigeons… SF is starting to grow on me. I’m happy to call SF my home 🙂

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 month

@alwayslaunch There’s a bit of luck, but I’d index heavily on team pedigree, grind mindset and business fundamentals. I’ve collected offers from a decent number of these startups that would have netted me a 100x on my equity. So this is quite achievable after trying this after 1-5 attempts

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

1 year

oof, @prisma is one of those products that you want to love but ultimately keeps disappointing you. e.g. no proper bulk updating, a limited query builder, schema restricted to one file.. among other issues 😢 #software #startups

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

6 days

Way too excited for the Elden Ring dlc They say the game is harder than quitting vim

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Craig Weiss

@craigzLiszt

2 months