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Every company has a rocky beginning.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Every
Rocky
Beginning
Company

More quotes by Sam Altman

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You really want to know your cofounders for a while, ideally years.
Sam Altman
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Because it's one of these sort of connections between nodes- every pair of people adds communication overhead.
Sam Altman
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You can have a startup and one other thing, you can have a family, but you probably can't have many other things.
Sam Altman
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The company just needs to see you as like this maniacal execution machine.
Sam Altman
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Employees will only add more value over time.
Sam Altman
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We talk to a team they've gotten new things done, that's the best predictor we have that a company will be successful.
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You have to save the vision speeches for when the company is winning. When you're not winning, you just have to get momentum back.
Sam Altman
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If you compromise and hire someone mediocre you will always regret it.
Sam Altman
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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.
Sam Altman
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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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One thing that founders always underestimate is how hard it is to recruit.
Sam Altman
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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.
Sam Altman
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The other piece besides focus for execution is intensity. Startups only work at a fairly intense level.
Sam Altman
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You want to sound crazy, but you want to actually be right.
Sam Altman
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Most of the best hires that I've made in my entire life have never done that thing before.
Sam Altman
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I believe in fighting with investors to reduce the amount of equity they get and then being as generous as you possibly can with employees.
Sam Altman
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Most good founders that I know at any given time have a set of small overarching goals for the company that everybody in the company knows.
Sam Altman
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Companies that I've been very involved with, that have had a very bad first hire in the first 3 or so employees never recover from it.
Sam Altman
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Long term thinking is so rare anywhere, but especially in startups. This is a huge advantage if you do it.
Sam Altman
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Unfortunately the trick to great execution is to say no a lot.
Sam Altman