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... you can think about that for everyone you hire: will I bet the future of this company on this single hire? And that's a tough bar.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Team
Company
Future
Everyone
Think
Hire
Thinking
Bars
Tough
Single

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Cofounder relationships are among the most important in the entire company.
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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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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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If you pivot, do it fully and with conviction. The worst thing is to try to do a bit of the old and the new-it's hard to kill your babies.
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You also want to fire people who a) create office politics, and b) who are persistently negative.
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Remember that the idea will expand, and become more ambitious as you go.
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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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If it takes more than a sentence to explain what you are doing, it's almost always a sign that what you are doing is too complicated.
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If you have several ideas that all seem pretty good, work on the one that you think about, when you're not trying to think about work.
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You need conviction in your own beliefs, and the willingness to ignore others naysaying.
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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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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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Most things are not as risky as they seem.
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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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Momentum and growth are the lifeblood of startups. This is probably in the top three secrets of executing well.
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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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So you should always stay on top of people's vesting schedules.
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Or a way to stay on strangers couches, that just sounds terrible all around.
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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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The cost of getting an early hire wrong is really high.
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