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Most things are not as risky as they seem.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Risky
Seem
Seems
Things

More quotes by Sam Altman

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Most investors are obsessed with the market size today and they don't think about how the market is going to evolve.
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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A single mediocre hire in the first five will often in fact kill a startup.
Sam Altman
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Growth solves (nearly) all problems
Sam Altman
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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.
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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If you compromise in the first five, ten hires it might kill the company.
Sam Altman
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... you want to be proud of how much you can get done with a small numbers of employees.
Sam Altman
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So it's worth some real up front time to think through the long term value and the defensibility of the business.
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
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... but actually it sucks to have a lot of employees, and you should be proud of how few employees you have.
Sam Altman
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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.
Sam Altman
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The second part of how to hire: try not to.
Sam Altman
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Employees will only add more value over time.
Sam Altman
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... the thing we see wrong with YC apps most frequently, is that people have not thought about the market first and what people want first.
Sam Altman
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The best ideas often look terrible at the beginning the truly good ideas, don't seem like they're worth stealing.
Sam Altman
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Obsess about the quality of the product.
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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... you can think about that for everyone you hire: will I bet the future of this company on this single hire? And that's a tough bar.
Sam Altman
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A small communication breakdown is enough for everyone to be working on slightly different things. And then you loose focus.
Sam Altman