This week wise investor Paul Graham did an open “office hours” during the Techcrunch Disrupt Conference. He exchanged questions and tried to poke holes in ideas startup founder’s presented to help them refine their companies.

It is fascinating to watch this kind of open constructive questioning. One round and you’ll emerge with a more solidified grasp of your ideas. But make a habit out of this practice and you’ll see enough patterns to walk on water.

Rather than quote the questions out of context, here are some of the kinds of questions Paul asked…

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Just days ago Matt Shobe, BigDoor’s Chief Design Officer, myself and an ad hoc team of talented individuals were knee deep in code developing a new mobile music app in one weekend.

This was the challenge Startup Weekend proposed to developers, designers, marketers and project managers alike – build and demo a product in less than 54 hours.

It was the pace of a startup, times two, then condensed into one weekend. Sleep was a luxury, and time was our greatest enemy.

The goal was to get something working ASAP. Each team was aiming to build a prototype fast, then iterate on their idea.

In an environment like this you reach for your bag of tricks. Whatever your background you’ll enviably go with what you know will get the job done fast.

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