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Firing people is one of the worst parts of running a company. Actually in my own experience, I think it is the worst.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Worst
Company
Actually
Experience
Running
Think
Firing
Thinking
Parts
People
Team

More quotes by Sam Altman

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You can have a startup and one other thing, you can have a family, but you probably can't have many other things.
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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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The way to have a company that executes well is you have to execute well yourself.
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You need unstoppable people. You want people that are just going to get it done.
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The thing that kills startups at some level, is the founders giving up.
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So you should always stay on top of people's vesting schedules.
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Another way of looking at this, is that the best companies are almost always mission oriented.
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No growth hack, brilliant marketing idea, or sales team can save you long term if you don't have a sufficiently good product.
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In YC's case, the number one cause of early death for startups is cofounder blowups.
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The role of the board is advice and consent. If the CEO does not lay out a clear strategy and tries to get the board to set one, it will usually end in disaster.
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You have to save the vision speeches for when the company is winning. When you're not winning, you just have to get momentum back.
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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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One thing that founders always underestimate is how hard it is to recruit.
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Founders are usually very stingy with equity to employees and very generous with equity to investors. I think this is totally backwards.
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Every company has a rocky beginning.
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One thing that often disrupts momentum and really shouldn't is competitors.
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You need to figure out what the 2 or 3 most important things are, and then just do those.
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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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Most founders have not managed people before, and they certainly haven't managed managers.
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A small communication breakdown is enough for everyone to be working on slightly different things. And then you loose focus.
Sam Altman