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A board member of mine used to say sales fix everything in a startup, and that is really true.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Members
True
Used
Sales
Everything
Board
Really
Boards
Member
Mines
Mine

More quotes by Sam Altman

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If it works out, you're going to be working on this for 10 years.
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... how much time you should be spending on hiring? The answer is 0 or 25 percent.
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One thing that often disrupts momentum and really shouldn't is competitors.
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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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The best ideas often look terrible at the beginning the truly good ideas, don't seem like they're worth stealing.
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Most investors are obsessed with the market size today and they don't think about how the market is going to evolve.
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Most founders have not managed people before, and they certainly haven't managed managers.
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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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You need unstoppable people. You want people that are just going to get it done.
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You want to sound crazy, but you want to actually be right.
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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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... 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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Another way of looking at this, is that the best companies are almost always mission oriented.
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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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One thing that founders always underestimate is how hard it is to recruit.
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So always keep momentum, it's this prime directive for managing a startup.
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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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... 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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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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Some day everyone will find out everyone else's comp, if it's all over the place, it will be a complete meltdown disaster
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