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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.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Great
Recruit
Years
Options
People
Easily
Team
Year
Someone
Best
Take

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Before product/market fit, your only job that matters is to build a great product.
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What being a founder means, is signing up for this years long grind on execution - and you can't outsource this.
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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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Developing a personal connection with anyone you're trying to do a big deal with is really important.
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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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The most common post YC failure case for the companies we fund, is they're incredibly focussed during YC on their company... and after they start doing a lot of other things. They advise companies, they go to conferences, whatever.
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The single word that matters most I think to keep the company productive as it grows is alignment.
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Starting a business is like riding a wave between life and death. If you can hang on long enough, you're bound to succeed
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You should be able to describe any employee as an animal at what they do.
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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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For most of the early hires you make in a startup, experience doesn't matter very much, and you should go for aptitude.
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You think you have this great idea that everyone's going to come join, but that's not how it works.
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At the beginning, you should only hire when you have a desperate need to.
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In addition to relentlessly resourceful, you want a tough and a calm cofounder.
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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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... if you talk to say any of the first 40 or 50 employees, they all feel like they were a part of the founding of the company.
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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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