YC founder Paul Graham defends fame, money as valid startup motivations after Indian entrepreneur’s tweet

Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham's reply to Indian entrepreneur Aviral Bhatnagar's tweet has gone viral.

An Indian entrepreneur, Aviral Bhatnagar, shared a tweet listing reasons which shouldn’t motivate one to start a company. While his post has prompted a series of responses, one of them has piqued people’s attention. It is the response of billionaire co-founder of Y Combinator, Paul Graham.

The Indian entrepreneur Aviral Bhatnagar reacted to Paul Graham's reply to his tweet. (X/@paulg, @aviralbhat)

In a tweet, the Indian founder advised people not to start a company if they are primarily driven by motivations such as “making money,” “getting famous,” “outdoing others,” or “calling oneself CEO or founder.”

“Only do it if you're crazy enough to do whatever it takes to solve a problem you deeply care about,” Bhatnagar added.

Reacting to the post, Graham tweeted, “Actually those are all legitimate motivations. I started Viaweb very explicitly to make money, and that worked out well enough.”

The Indian entrepreneur responded to the post and wrote, “Thanks Paul for sharing your perspective - that is very interesting to know. As an aside, quite grateful to you for sharing your wisdom and learnings over the years so openly - been a long-time reader of your essays.”

Paul Graham’s response to an Indian founder. (Screengrab (X))

What did social media say?

An individual posted, “Everyone has a different ‘main motivation.’ I’d say it probably works out best for them if they’re extremely passionate about their main motivation. But who am I (or anyone) to police what that main motivation can or cannot be?” Another added, “In my very limited friend circle, most of the brilliant folks are chasing money and clout. For which they are working hard on very real modern problems. I hope they all become super rich.”

A third expressed, “It’s arguably much healthier than when people pretend they do it for some grand reason and that they are completely disinterested in money.” A fourth wrote, “Arguably, if you’re not focused on making money, then you’re doing a disservice not only to yourself but all the employees at your company.”

The founder of The Network School also shared his thoughts:

Who is Aviral Bhatnagar?

Pune-based Aviral Bhatnagar is a startup investor. Talking about the various reactions to his now-viral tweet, he told HT.com, “People tend to have conflicting opinions - I think respectful agreement/disagreement is good.”