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No matter what you choose, build stuff and be around smart people.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Build
Smart
Choose
Stuff
Around
Matter
People

More quotes by Sam Altman

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You also want to fire people who a) create office politics, and b) who are persistently negative.
Sam Altman
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I think as a rough estimate, you should aim to give about 10% of the company to the first 10 employees.
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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What being a founder means, is signing up for this years long grind on execution - and you can't outsource this.
Sam Altman
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Obsess about the quality of the product.
Sam Altman
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One thing that often disrupts momentum and really shouldn't is competitors.
Sam Altman
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So you should always stay on top of people's vesting schedules.
Sam Altman
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No growth hack, brilliant marketing idea, or sales team can save you long term if you don't have a sufficiently good product.
Sam Altman
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AirBnB spent 5 months interviewing their first employee, before they hired someone and in their first year, they only hired 2 people.
Sam Altman
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You need unstoppable people. You want people that are just going to get it done.
Sam Altman
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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.
Sam Altman
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Employees will only add more value over time.
Sam Altman
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You want to sound crazy, but you want to actually be right.
Sam Altman
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Later, you should learn to hire fast and scale up the company, but in the early days the goal should be not to hire. Not to hire.
Sam Altman
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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.
Sam Altman
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When it comes to starting startups, in many ways, it's easier to start a hard startup than an easy startup.
Sam Altman
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In the early stage of a startup, hiring senior people is usually a mistake. You just want people that get stuff done.
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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We talk to a team they've gotten new things done, that's the best predictor we have that a company will be successful.
Sam Altman
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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.
Sam Altman