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Momentum and growth are the lifeblood of startups. This is probably in the top three secrets of executing well.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Well
Executing
Momentum
Secrets
Growth
Probably
Secret
Three
Wells
Lifeblood

More quotes by Sam Altman

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The track record for founders that don't already know each other is really bad.
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If you don't need it yourself, and you're building something that someone else needs, realize you're at a big disadvantage.
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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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The way to have a company that executes well is you have to execute well yourself.
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The cost of getting an early hire wrong is really high.
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... but the pendulum has swung way out of whack here. A bad idea is still bad, and the pivot happy world we're in today feels suboptimal.
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Mediocre founders spend a lot of time talking about grand plans, but they never quite make a decision.
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Obsess about the quality of the product.
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Most founders have not managed people before, and they certainly haven't managed managers.
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Growth and momentum are what a startup lives on and you always have to focus on maintaining these.
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If you compromise in the first five, ten hires it might kill the company.
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You want to sound crazy, but you want to actually be right.
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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.
Sam Altman
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... you can think about that for everyone you hire: will I bet the future of this company on this single hire? And that's a tough bar.
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The role of the board is advice and consent. If the CEO does not lay out a clear strategy and tries to get the board to set one, it will usually end in disaster.
Sam Altman
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A single mediocre hire in the first five will often in fact kill a startup.
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You cannot create a market that doesn't want to exist.
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... but actually it sucks to have a lot of employees, and you should be proud of how few employees you have.
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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.
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No growth hack, brilliant marketing idea, or sales team can save you long term if you don't have a sufficiently good product.
Sam Altman