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The other piece besides focus for execution is intensity. Startups only work at a fairly intense level.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Level
Pieces
Levels
Execution
Focus
Besides
Work
Fairly
Intensity
Intense
Piece

More quotes by 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're saying no ninety-seven times out of a hundred, and most founders find they have to make a very conscious effort to do this.
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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.
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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.
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Companies that I've been very involved with, that have had a very bad first hire in the first 3 or so employees never recover from it.
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A single mediocre hire in the first five will often in fact kill a startup.
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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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You need conviction in your own beliefs, and the willingness to ignore others naysaying.
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Because it's one of these sort of connections between nodes- every pair of people adds communication overhead.
Sam Altman
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One of the biggest advantages that start ups have is execution speed and you have to have this relentless operating rhythm.
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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So always keep momentum, it's this prime directive for managing a startup.
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.
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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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The natural state of a start-up is to die most start-ups require multiple miracles in their early days to escape this fate.
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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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The track record for founders that don't already know each other is really bad.
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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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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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It's easy to move fast or be obsessed with quality, but the trick is you have to do both at a startup.
Sam Altman