Don't hire for the sake of hiring. Hire because there is no other way to do what you want to do.

Generally, you want to raise capital either when you have to or when it's really easy. If the company desperately needs money, and they can't figure out any other way, then they need to raise money. Or if someone's offering you easy money on good terms, you should take it because you can use it for good things.

If you wanted to build an Internet startup in 2005, you had to buy your own servers and hire someone to manage it. Now, that's unheard of.

Don't let yourself make excuses for not doing the things you want to do.

You really want a company full of missionaries, not mercenaries.

The only way to generate sustained exponential growth is to make whatever you're making sufficiently good.