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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

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... for the top twenty most valuable YC companies, all of them have at least two founders.
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Most things are not as risky as they seem.
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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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Whatever the founder cares about, whatever the founders think are the key goals, that's going to be what the whole company focusses on.
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Be suspicious of any work that is not building product or getting customers. It's easy to get sucked into an infrastructure rewrite death spiral.
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You should think about for the next 10 years, you're going to be giving out 3-5% of the company every year.
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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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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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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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You need conviction in your own beliefs, and the willingness to ignore others naysaying.
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Losing focus is another way that founders get off track.
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The cost of getting an early hire wrong is really high.
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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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You should always know how you're doing against your metrics. You should always have a weekly review meeting every week.
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If someone is getting every decision wrong, that's when you need to act, and at that point it'll be painfully aware to everyone.
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