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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
Someone
Firsts
Interviewing
First
Hired
Years
Employee
People
Spent
Months
Team
Year

More quotes by Sam Altman

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If you compromise in the first five, ten hires it might kill the company.
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One thing that often disrupts momentum and really shouldn't is competitors.
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If you don't need it yourself, and you're building something that someone else needs, realize you're at a big disadvantage.
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It really is true that you become an average of the people you spend the most time with.
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If you want something in a deal, just ask for it.
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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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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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When lack of structure fails, it fails all at once. What works totally fine from 0-20 employees, is disastrous at 30.
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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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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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You can basically change everything in a startup but the market.
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One thing that founders forget is that after they hire employees, they have to retain them.
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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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Every company has a rocky beginning.
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You should be able to describe any employee as an animal at what they do.
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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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You need conviction in your own beliefs, and the willingness to ignore others naysaying.
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Losing focus is another way that founders get off track.
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You have to let your team get all the credit for all the good stuff that happens, and you take responsibility for the bad stuff.
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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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