Quote

The second part of how to hire: try not to.

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
Hire
Second
Team
Part
Trying

More quotes by Sam Altman

Image
Founders need to figure out what the message of the company is going to be.
Sam Altman
Image
The hard part is that this is a very fine line. There's right on one side of it, and crazy on the other.
Sam Altman
Image
... but actually it sucks to have a lot of employees, and you should be proud of how few employees you have.
Sam Altman
Image
For most software startups, this translates to keep growing. For hardware startups, it translates to don't let your ship date slip.
Sam Altman
Image
... the thing we see wrong with YC apps most frequently, is that people have not thought about the market first and what people want first.
Sam Altman
Image
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.
Sam Altman
Image
AirBnB spent 5 months interviewing their first employee, before they hired someone and in their first year, they only hired 2 people.
Sam Altman
Image
You're saying no ninety-seven times out of a hundred, and most founders find they have to make a very conscious effort to do this.
Sam Altman
Image
Momentum and growth are the lifeblood of startups. This is probably in the top three secrets of executing well.
Sam Altman
Image
The single word that matters most I think to keep the company productive as it grows is alignment.
Sam Altman
Image
Developing a personal connection with anyone you're trying to do a big deal with is really important.
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
Most good founders that I know at any given time have a set of small overarching goals for the company that everybody in the company knows.
Sam Altman
Image
One thing that founders forget is that after they hire employees, they have to retain them.
Sam Altman
Image
If it works out, you're going to be working on this for 10 years.
Sam Altman
Image
The track record for founders that don't already know each other is really bad.
Sam Altman
Image
Whatever the founder cares about, whatever the founders think are the key goals, that's going to be what the whole company focusses on.
Sam Altman
Image
You only get points when you make something the market wants. So if you work really hard on the wrong things, no one will care.
Sam Altman
Image
The best ideas often look terrible at the beginning the truly good ideas, don't seem like they're worth stealing.
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