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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.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Early
Team
Experience
Doesn
Matter
Much
Make
Hires
Aptitude

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Founders need to figure out what the message of the company is going to be.
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The second part of how to hire: try not to.
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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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Because so few people make an actual long term commitment to what they're building, the ones that do have a huge advantage.
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No matter what you choose, build stuff and be around smart people.
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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.
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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 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.
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If you compromise and hire someone mediocre you will always regret it.
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If you compromise in the first five, ten hires it might kill the company.
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The other piece besides focus for execution is intensity. Startups only work at a fairly intense level.
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The cost of getting an early hire wrong is really high.
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It's easy to move fast or be obsessed with quality, but the trick is you have to do both at a startup.
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