Quote

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

Sam Altman

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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

Image
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.
Sam Altman
Image
Startups are very hard no matter what you do you may as well go after a big opportunity.
Sam Altman
Image
The track record for founders that don't already know each other is really bad.
Sam Altman
Image
When lack of structure fails, it fails all at once. What works totally fine from 0-20 employees, is disastrous at 30.
Sam Altman
Image
As you grow, it feels hopelessly corporate but it really is worth putting in place these compensation bands.
Sam Altman
Image
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.
Sam Altman
Image
In general, it's best if you're building something that you yourself need.
Sam Altman
Image
One thing that founders forget is that after they hire employees, they have to retain them.
Sam Altman
Image
In general though, if you look at the track record of pivots, they don't become big companies.
Sam Altman
Image
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.
Sam Altman
Image
Before product/market fit, your only job that matters is to build a great product.
Sam Altman
Image
A single mediocre hire in the first five will often in fact kill a startup.
Sam Altman
Image
Starting a business is like riding a wave between life and death. If you can hang on long enough, you're bound to succeed
Sam Altman
Image
... 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.
Sam Altman
Image
You can have a startup and one other thing, you can have a family, but you probably can't have many other things.
Sam Altman
Image
At the beginning, you should only hire when you have a desperate need to.
Sam Altman
Image
If it works out, you're going to be working on this for 10 years.
Sam Altman
Image
In YC's case, the number one cause of early death for startups is cofounder blowups.
Sam Altman
Image
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.
Sam Altman
Image
You don't get to make their decisions but you do get to choose the decision makers.
Sam Altman