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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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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Trying
Things
Credit
Starting
Terrible
Start
Great

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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.
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I believe in fighting with investors to reduce the amount of equity they get and then being as generous as you possibly can with employees.
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Founders need to figure out what the message of the company is going to be.
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Cofounder relationships are among the most important in the entire company.
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... and you can only have 2 or 3 things everyday, because everything else will just come at you you know fires in a day.
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... how much time you should be spending on hiring? The answer is 0 or 25 percent.
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The startups that do well are the ones that are working all the time.
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In addition to relentlessly resourceful, you want a tough and a calm cofounder.
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You have to save the vision speeches for when the company is winning. When you're not winning, you just have to get momentum back.
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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.
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For most of the early hires you make in a startup, experience doesn't matter very much, and you should go for aptitude.
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In general though, if you look at the track record of pivots, they don't become big companies.
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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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Or a way to stay on strangers couches, that just sounds terrible all around.
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If it takes more than a sentence to explain what you are doing, it's almost always a sign that what you are doing is too complicated.
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You really want to know your cofounders for a while, ideally years.
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In YC's case, the number one cause of early death for startups is cofounder blowups.
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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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... if you talk to say any of the first 40 or 50 employees, they all feel like they were a part of the founding of the company.
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Most things are not as risky as they seem.
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