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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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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
First
Feels
Time
Imposter
Like
Scared
Starting
Bits
Everyone
Firsts

More quotes by Sam Altman

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The second part of how to hire: try not to.
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Starting a business is like riding a wave between life and death. If you can hang on long enough, you're bound to succeed
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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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One of the biggest advantages that start ups have is execution speed and you have to have this relentless operating rhythm.
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You also want to fire people who a) create office politics, and b) who are persistently negative.
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... the thing we see wrong with YC apps most frequently, is that people have not thought about the market first and what people want first.
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Press releases are easier to write than code, and that is still easier than making a great product.
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So always keep momentum, it's this prime directive for managing a startup.
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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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The natural state of a start-up is to die most start-ups require multiple miracles in their early days to escape this fate.
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Be suspicious of any work that is not building product or getting customers.
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You need to figure out what the 2 or 3 most important things are, and then just do those.
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The most important thing is that there is clear reporting structure and everyone knows what it is.
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In addition to relentlessly resourceful, you want a tough and a calm cofounder.
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So you should always stay on top of people's vesting schedules.
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If you compromise in the first five, ten hires it might kill the company.
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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.
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... fire fast when it's not working. It's better for the company, it's also better for the employee.
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If you have several ideas that all seem pretty good, work on the one that you think about, when you're not trying to think about work.
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The hard part is that this is a very fine line. There's right on one side of it, and crazy on the other.
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