The Importance of Having an Incubator

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This is the incubator kind of... That's the word people like to apply. Well, it has a certain there's an embryo, fetus, whatever it's going to grow. The reason the word incubator doesn't apply is because what it always used to mean back in the bubble was that all the startups work on your premises. So we don't do that. It's good for the startup to be off on their own. They can find space. At the end of three months, the dinner stops. But nothing else stops. I have regular office hours. I meet with startups. And like, I'm still having office hours of startups we funded two, three years ago.

Paul Graham, essayist, programmer and partner in the y-combinator talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about start-ups, innovation, and creativity. Graham draws on his experience as entrepreneur and investor to discuss the current state of the start-up world and how that world has changed due to improved technology that makes it easier to start a software company. Graham talks about his unusual venture firm, the y-combinator, and how he and his partners work with start-ups to get them ready for more advanced funding. Along the way, Graham discusses why hackers are like painters and how to survive high school.