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If you compromise in the first five, ten hires it might kill the company.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Might
Firsts
Hires
First
Compromise
Ten
Kill
Team
Company
Five

More quotes by Sam Altman

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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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The most important thing is that there is clear reporting structure and everyone knows what it is.
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The startups that do well are the ones that are working all the time.
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You should be able to describe any employee as an animal at what they do.
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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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The second part of how to hire: try not to.
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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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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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Every company has a rocky beginning.
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Employees will only add more value over time.
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You need to have a culture where people have very high quality standards in everything the company does, but still move quickly.
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Because it's one of these sort of connections between nodes- every pair of people adds communication overhead.
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In general though, if you look at the track record of pivots, they don't become big companies.
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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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You don't get to make their decisions but you do get to choose the decision makers.
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... for the top twenty most valuable YC companies, all of them have at least two founders.
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The company just needs to see you as like this maniacal execution machine.
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Aim to be the best in the world at whatever you do professionally. Even if you miss, you'll probably end up in a pretty good place.
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In general, it's best if you're building something that you yourself need.
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One thing I tell startups all the time is that the best way to grow is to make their product better.
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