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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
Actually
Experience
Running
Think
Firing
Thinking
Parts
People
Team
Worst
Company

More quotes by Sam Altman

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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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Don't let the company get distracted or excited about other things. A common mistake is that companies get excited by their own PR.
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If you want something in a deal, just ask for it.
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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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... you want to be proud of how much you can get done with a small numbers of employees.
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I think as a rough estimate, you should aim to give about 10% of the company to the first 10 employees.
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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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Everyone starting a startup for the first time is scared, and everyone feels like a bit of an imposter.
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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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Mediocre founders spend a lot of time talking about grand plans, but they never quite make a decision.
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Founders need to figure out what the message of the company is going to be.
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One of the biggest advantages that start ups have is execution speed and you have to have this relentless operating rhythm.
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Before product/market fit, your only job that matters is to build a great product.
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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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Growth solves (nearly) all problems
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When it comes to starting startups, in many ways, it's easier to start a hard startup than an easy startup.
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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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Long term thinking is so rare anywhere, but especially in startups. This is a huge advantage if you do it.
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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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Be suspicious of any work that is not building product or getting customers. It's easy to get sucked into an infrastructure rewrite death spiral.
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