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Startups are not the best choice for work-life balance, and that's sort of just the sad reality.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Choice
Balance
Sort
Choices
Reality
Best
Work
Life

More quotes by Sam Altman

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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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... for the top twenty most valuable YC companies, all of them have at least two founders.
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You also want to fire people who a) create office politics, and b) who are persistently negative.
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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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Growth solves (nearly) all problems
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You need conviction in your own beliefs, and the willingness to ignore others naysaying.
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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.
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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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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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Before product/market fit, your only job that matters is to build a great product.
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Move fast. Speed is one of your main advantages over large companies.
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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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So always keep momentum, it's this prime directive for managing 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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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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You need unstoppable people. You want people that are just going to get it done.
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You certainly don't need to have everything figured out in the path from here to world domination.
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A small communication breakdown is enough for everyone to be working on slightly different things. And then you loose focus.
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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.
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One thing that often disrupts momentum and really shouldn't is competitors.
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