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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
Prime
Keep
Always
Directive
Managing
Momentum

More quotes by Sam Altman

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Cofounder relationships are among the most important in the entire company.
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... 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.
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Every company has a rocky beginning.
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You can create value with breakthrough innovation, incremental refinement, or complex coordination. Great companies often do two of these. The very best companies do all three.
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You can basically change everything in a startup but the market.
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Ideas by themselves are not worth anything, only executing well is what creates value.
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You need this sort of a tailwind to make a startup successful.
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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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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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You cannot create a market that doesn't want to exist.
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One thing that founders always underestimate is how hard it is to recruit.
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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 it works out, you're going to be working on this for 10 years.
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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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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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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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Obsess about the quality of the product.
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Firing people is one of the worst parts of running a company. Actually in my own experience, I think it is the worst.
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Why now, why is this the perfect time for this particular idea, and to start this particular company?
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Or a way to stay on strangers couches, that just sounds terrible all around.
Sam Altman