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Sam Altman Inspirational Quotes (143)

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Everyone starting a startup for the first time is scared, and everyone feels like a bit of an imposter.
Sam Altman
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Later, you should learn to hire fast and scale up the company, but in the early days the goal should be not to hire. Not to hire.
Sam Altman
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Growth solves (nearly) all problems
Sam Altman
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I really believe that the single hardest thing in business is building a company that does repeatable innovation... and just has this ongoing culture of excellence as it grows.
Sam Altman
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You don't get to make their decisions but you do get to choose the decision makers.
Sam Altman
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Unpopular but right is what you're going for.
Sam Altman
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... for the top twenty most valuable YC companies, all of them have at least two founders.
Sam Altman
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... fire fast when it's not working. It's better for the company, it's also better for the employee.
Sam Altman
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... and you can only have 2 or 3 things everyday, because everything else will just come at you you know fires in a day.
Sam Altman
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One of the great and terrible things about starting a start up is that you get no credit for trying.
Sam Altman
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If you don't need it yourself, and you're building something that someone else needs, realize you're at a big disadvantage.
Sam Altman
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The startups that do well are the ones that are working all the time.
Sam Altman
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If you compromise in the first five, ten hires it might kill the company.
Sam Altman
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You certainly don't need to have everything figured out in the path from here to world domination.
Sam Altman
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Whatever the founder cares about, whatever the founders think are the key goals, that's going to be what the whole company focusses on.
Sam Altman
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A small communication breakdown is enough for everyone to be working on slightly different things. And then you loose focus.
Sam Altman
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For most of the early hires you make in a startup, experience doesn't matter very much, and you should go for aptitude.
Sam Altman
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So it's worth some real up front time to think through the long term value and the defensibility of the business.
Sam Altman
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The most common post YC failure case for the companies we fund, is they're incredibly focussed during YC on their company... and after they start doing a lot of other things. They advise companies, they go to conferences, whatever.
Sam Altman
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Most things are not as risky as they seem.
Sam Altman
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Losing focus is another way that founders get off track.
Sam Altman
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Remember that the idea will expand, and become more ambitious as you go.
Sam Altman
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Most startups are not nearly focussed enough. They work hard...maybe, but they don't work hard on the right things.
Sam Altman
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In general, it's best if you're building something that you yourself need.
Sam Altman
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