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You can create value with breakthrough innovation, incremental refinement, or complex coordination. Great companies often do two of these. The very best companies do all three.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Complex
Three
Two
Companies
Best
Innovation
Incremental
Great
Value
Coordination
Create
Refinement
Company
Breakthrough
Values
Complexes
Often

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Developing a personal connection with anyone you're trying to do a big deal with is really important.
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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.
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The startups that do well are the ones that are working all the time.
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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.
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Startups are very hard no matter what you do you may as well go after a big opportunity.
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The role of the board is advice and consent. If the CEO does not lay out a clear strategy and tries to get the board to set one, it will usually end in disaster.
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If you pivot, do it fully and with conviction. The worst thing is to try to do a bit of the old and the new-it's hard to kill your babies.
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Why now, why is this the perfect time for this particular idea, and to start this particular company?
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You have to be decisive. Indecisiveness is a startup killer.
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You think you have this great idea that everyone's going to come join, but that's not how it works.
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The other piece besides focus for execution is intensity. Startups only work at a fairly intense level.
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You have to let your team get all the credit for all the good stuff that happens, and you take responsibility for the bad stuff.
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Long term thinking is so rare anywhere, but especially in startups. This is a huge advantage if you do it.
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In general though, if you look at the track record of pivots, they don't become big companies.
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If it takes more than a sentence to explain what you are doing, it's almost always a sign that what you are doing is too complicated.
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These all sounded really bad, but they turned out to be good. If they had sounded really good, there would have been too many people working on them.
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The way to have a company that executes well is you have to execute well yourself.
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