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Most startups are not nearly focussed enough. They work hard...maybe, but they don't work hard on the right things.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Right
Hard
Work
Things
Focussed
Nearly
Maybe
Enough

More quotes by Sam Altman

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Before product/market fit, your only job that matters is to build a great product.
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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.
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Cofounder relationships are among the most important in the entire company.
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It's easy to move fast or be obsessed with quality, but the trick is you have to do both at a startup.
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Startups are not the best choice for work-life balance, and that's sort of just the sad reality.
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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.
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In general, it's best if you're building something that you yourself need.
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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.
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You really want to know your cofounders for a while, ideally years.
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In addition to relentlessly resourceful, you want a tough and a calm cofounder.
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Remember that the idea will expand, and become more ambitious as you go.
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The thing that kills startups at some level, is the founders giving up.
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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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A board member of mine used to say sales fix everything in a startup, and that is really true.
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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.
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You think you have this great idea that everyone's going to come join, but that's not how it works.
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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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One thing I tell startups all the time is that the best way to grow is to make their product better.
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Employees will only add more value over time.
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The second part of how to hire: try not to.
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