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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
People
Build
Smart
Choose
Stuff
Around
Matter

More quotes by Sam Altman

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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.
Sam Altman
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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.
Sam Altman
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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.
Sam Altman
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You should be able to describe any employee as an animal at what they do.
Sam Altman
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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.
Sam Altman
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You don't get to make their decisions but you do get to choose the decision makers.
Sam Altman
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Unfortunately the trick to great execution is to say no a lot.
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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One of the great and terrible things about starting a start up is that you get no credit for trying.
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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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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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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Firing people is one of the worst parts of running a company. Actually in my own experience, I think it is the worst.
Sam Altman
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Why now, why is this the perfect time for this particular idea, and to start this particular company?
Sam Altman
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Growth solves (nearly) all problems
Sam Altman
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The most important thing is that there is clear reporting structure and everyone knows what it is.
Sam Altman
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... how much time you should be spending on hiring? The answer is 0 or 25 percent.
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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Great execution towards a terrible idea will get you nowhere.
Sam Altman
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Press releases are easier to write than code, and that is still easier than making a great product.
Sam Altman