Airbnb's founders exemplified the principle of doing things that don't scale by personally taking high-quality photos of listings to attract users and get their business off the ground.

YC encourages startups to do things unscalably at the beginning, which is a significant competitive advantage over larger companies.

The main goal of doing things that don't scale is to maximize learning and delight early customers, even if it requires manual and one-off efforts.

The main goal of doing things that don't scale is to maximize learning. By engaging directly with customers, you can ensure that what you're building provides real value before scaling up.

The advice to do things that don't scale is counterintuitive but provides startups with a unique advantage over larger competitors by fostering deep customer understanding and rapid experimentation.

Doing things that don't scale means engaging in handmade, artisanal efforts early on, even if you know you can't maintain them forever, because it helps you learn and grow your startup.

Doing things that don't scale is crucial for early-stage startups because it helps founders engage directly with customers and understand their needs.

Doing things that don't scale allows founders to learn directly from customers, leading to better products and services.

Conclude by emphasizing the potential impact of your idea and its scalability, even if it currently addresses a smaller problem for a limited audience. Everything that could be truly great starts off as something very small, like Airbnb, which began with conference travel in San Francisco using air beds and serving breakfast.