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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
Everyone
Firsts
First
Feels
Time
Imposter
Like
Scared
Starting
Bits
More quotes by Sam Altman
The most important thing is that there is clear reporting structure and everyone knows what it is.
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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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You don't need to make the structure complicated, in fact you shouldn't. All you need is for every employee to know who their manager is.
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... you want to be proud of how much you can get done with a small numbers of employees.
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Most founders have not managed people before, and they certainly haven't managed managers.
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When lack of structure fails, it fails all at once. What works totally fine from 0-20 employees, is disastrous at 30.
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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.
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1 of the hardest parts about being a founder, is that there are a 100 important things competing for your attention each day.
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Most things are not as risky as they seem.
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For most software startups, this translates to keep growing. For hardware startups, it translates to don't let your ship date slip.
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You want to sound crazy, but you want to actually be right.
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Don't let the company get distracted or excited about other things. A common mistake is that companies get excited by their own PR.
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A board member of mine used to say sales fix everything in a startup, and that is really true.
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You need conviction in your own beliefs, and the willingness to ignore others naysaying.
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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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You can basically change everything in a startup but the market.
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Startups are not the best choice for work-life balance, and that's sort of just the sad reality.
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... for the top twenty most valuable YC companies, all of them have at least two founders.
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One thing that founders forget is that after they hire employees, they have to retain them.
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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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