Method
The venture-building principles on this site come from Paul Graham's essays. We operationalize them — into tools, ventures, and a way of working. Here's the connection.
The five principles
Each principle on the homepage maps to a Paul Graham essay and a VE LAB tool or venture. Here's the map.
How we run ventures. We build alongside founders, not above them. PG named it in September 2024; we were already doing it.
Principle 02Why a studio beats a fund. Returns for performance aren't linear — they compound. A studio captures that; a check-writer doesn't.
Principle 03How we pick founders. We back people building what they're excessively curious about — not what looks good on a pitch deck.
Principle 04What we back. The best ventures start as things nobody would search for. Justin.tv sounded insane. It became Twitch.
Principle 05Where VE LAB came from. MINY was a music community, not a strategy. It became the seed for everything here.
Deep divePG's "How to Earn a Billion Dollars," made interactive. A growth-rate × duration calculator, founder tools, FAQ, and glossary.
The tools
Set a growth rate, duration, and equity. Watch where a founder's stake crosses $1B.
MethodNarrow 30+ market ideas to one defended beachhead. Evidence at every layer, a 90-day plan to win it.
Live appThe workbook, made interactive. Score your markets, pick the one to win first.
Where we apply it
The method determines how we build. The trends determine where. We track three macro AI forces that shape every venture we start — and publish the research openly.
See the forces, the trend briefs, and where the ventures live.