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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.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Team
Year
Someone
Firsts
Interviewing
First
Hired
Years
Employee
People
Spent
Months

More quotes by Sam Altman

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You should always know how you're doing against your metrics. You should always have a weekly review meeting every week.
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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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In YC's case, the number one cause of early death for startups is cofounder blowups.
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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 believe in fighting with investors to reduce the amount of equity they get and then being as generous as you possibly can with employees.
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If you want something in a deal, just ask for it.
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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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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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Every company has a rocky beginning.
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Most startups are not nearly focussed enough. They work hard...maybe, but they don't work hard on the right things.
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Whatever the founder cares about, whatever the founders think are the key goals, that's going to be what the whole company focusses on.
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If it works out, you're going to be working on this for 10 years.
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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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The cost of getting an early hire wrong is really high.
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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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It's easy to move fast or be obsessed with quality, but the trick is you have to do both at a startup.
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Everyone starting a startup for the first time is scared, and everyone feels like a bit of an imposter.
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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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Because so few people make an actual long term commitment to what they're building, the ones that do have a huge advantage.
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If someone is getting every decision wrong, that's when you need to act, and at that point it'll be painfully aware to everyone.
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