I just checked Paul Graham's site and noticed he has a couple of announcements for some speaking engagements. The first is called "Hiring is Obsolete". His thesis for the talk is "...I foresee an alternative path for the most ambitious: instead of going to work for Microsoft, start a startup and make Microsoft buy it to get you." The second talk called "How To Sell a Startup" is about just that—how to sell a startup. Both are obviously within Paul's knowledge, but I have to ask: What if you want to start a Microsoft?

Obviously you can't sell your startup to Microsoft, or any other Dopefish corporation, to become a Microsoft. So how would you make a startup into a Microsoft? By hiring people to take over your initial product so you can move onto the next product.

That means hiring, and not selling out.

So the "become a dopefish" game is completely backwards from the "get ate by a dopefish" game. Instead of looking for the highest bidder to sell your company to, you should be looking for those smart people with bad startup ideas, or know better than to listen to Paul Graham on every aspect of life. They're the ones who'll take over all aspects of the business so you can branch out and grow, hopefully like a patch of kudzu.

So I'll call this:

Biz Principle #2: Hire! Don't sell out.