YC co-founder who backed Airbnb, Dropbox, and Reddit says high school isn’t the time to launch a startup

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• Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator, is warning high schoolers not to rush into launching startups too early. While he acknowledges some rare cases like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who he backed at 19, Graham says most teens just aren’t yet mature enough for founder life. Instead of chasing early startup success, he advises Gen Zers to focus on learning, curiosity, and building skills first.

Sorry, high schoolers, your dreams of pitching that dream start-up on Shark Tank will have to wait. Paul Graham, the co-founder of Y Combinator—the start-up accelerator behind Silicon Valley giants like Airbnb, Stripe, Dropbox and Reddit advises not to rush into entrepreneurship before graduation.