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So always keep momentum, it's this prime directive for managing a startup.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Directive
Managing
Momentum
Prime
Keep
Always

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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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It really is true that you become an average of the people you spend the most time with.
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As you grow, it feels hopelessly corporate but it really is worth putting in place these compensation bands.
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To get the very best people- they have a lot of great options, and so it can easily take a year to recruit someone.
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You think you have this great idea that everyone's going to come join, but that's not how it works.
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The best people know that they should join a rocketship.
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As the company grows and about this 25 or so employee size, your main job shifts from building a great product to building a great company.
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You need to figure out what the 2 or 3 most important things are, and then just do those.
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You don't need to make the structure complicated, in fact you shouldn't. All you need is for every employee to know who their manager is.
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If you want something in a deal, just ask for it.
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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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Because it's one of these sort of connections between nodes- every pair of people adds communication overhead.
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You have to be decisive. Indecisiveness is a startup killer.
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1 of the hardest parts about being a founder, is that there are a 100 important things competing for your attention each day.
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Startups are very hard no matter what you do you may as well go after a big opportunity.
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Great execution towards a terrible idea will get you nowhere.
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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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If it works out, you're going to be working on this for 10 years.
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If you pivot, do it fully and with conviction. The worst thing is to try to do a bit of the old and the new-it's hard to kill your babies.
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The hard part is that this is a very fine line. There's right on one side of it, and crazy on the other.
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