Quote

A single mediocre hire in the first five will often in fact kill a startup.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Firsts
Mediocre
First
Kill
Single
Team
Five
Fact
Often
Facts
Hire

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Be suspicious of any work that is not building product or getting customers.
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At the beginning, you should only hire when you have a desperate need to.
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One thing that founders always underestimate is how hard it is to recruit.
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Most of the best hires that I've made in my entire life have never done that thing before.
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In the beginning of a company, there is no management and this actually works really well.
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... and you can only have 2 or 3 things everyday, because everything else will just come at you you know fires in a day.
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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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You can basically change everything in a startup but the market.
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Cofounder relationships are among the most important in the entire company.
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Mediocre founders spend a lot of time talking about grand plans, but they never quite make a decision.
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The company just needs to see you as like this maniacal execution machine.
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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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A board member of mine used to say sales fix everything in a startup, and that is really true.
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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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Startups are very hard no matter what you do you may as well go after a big opportunity.
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I really believe that the single hardest thing in business is building a company that does repeatable innovation... and just has this ongoing culture of excellence as it grows.
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A small communication breakdown is enough for everyone to be working on slightly different things. And then you loose focus.
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You need conviction in your own beliefs, and the willingness to ignore others naysaying.
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The second part of how to hire: try not to.
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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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