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Be suspicious of any work that is not building product or getting customers.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Suspicious
Customers
Product
Products
Building
Getting
Work

More quotes by 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.
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The most common post YC failure case for the companies we fund, is they're incredibly focussed during YC on their company... and after they start doing a lot of other things. They advise companies, they go to conferences, whatever.
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If you have several ideas that all seem pretty good, work on the one that you think about, when you're not trying to think about work.
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No matter what you choose, build stuff and be around smart people.
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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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In the early stage of a startup, hiring senior people is usually a mistake. You just want people that get stuff done.
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... you want to be proud of how much you can get done with a small numbers of employees.
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Remember that the idea will expand, and become more ambitious as you go.
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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.
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Before product/market fit, your only job that matters is to build a great product.
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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.
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Some day everyone will find out everyone else's comp, if it's all over the place, it will be a complete meltdown disaster
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... but the pendulum has swung way out of whack here. A bad idea is still bad, and the pivot happy world we're in today feels suboptimal.
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These all sounded really bad, but they turned out to be good. If they had sounded really good, there would have been too many people working on them.
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One thing that often disrupts momentum and really shouldn't is competitors.
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Everyone starting a startup for the first time is scared, and everyone feels like a bit of an imposter.
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It really is true that you become an average of the people you spend the most time with.
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Don't let the company get distracted or excited about other things. A common mistake is that companies get excited by their own PR.
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As you grow, it feels hopelessly corporate but it really is worth putting in place these compensation bands.
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Most of the best hires that I've made in my entire life have never done that thing before.
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