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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.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Early
Team
Days
Company
Hire
Goal
Scale
Learn
Scales
Fast
Later

More quotes by Sam Altman

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You should think about for the next 10 years, you're going to be giving out 3-5% of the company every year.
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Press releases are easier to write than code, and that is still easier than making a great product.
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One of the biggest advantages that start ups have is execution speed and you have to have this relentless operating rhythm.
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... fire fast when it's not working. It's better for the company, it's also better for the employee.
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... 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.
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You can have a startup and one other thing, you can have a family, but you probably can't have many other things.
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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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A board member of mine used to say sales fix everything in a startup, and that is really true.
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If you have several ideas that all seem pretty good, work on the one that you think about, when you're not trying to think about work.
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AirBnB spent 5 months interviewing their first employee, before they hired someone and in their first year, they only hired 2 people.
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The most important thing is that there is clear reporting structure and everyone knows what it is.
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When it comes to starting startups, in many ways, it's easier to start a hard startup than an easy startup.
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... for the top twenty most valuable YC companies, all of them have at least two founders.
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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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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.
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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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Unfortunately the trick to great execution is to say no a lot.
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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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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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