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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
People
Team
Worst
Company
Actually
Experience
Running
Think
Firing
Thinking
Parts

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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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The second part of how to hire: try not to.
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So always keep momentum, it's this prime directive for managing a startup.
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The hard part is that this is a very fine line. There's right on one side of it, and crazy on the other.
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Startups are not the best choice for work-life balance, and that's sort of just the sad reality.
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You think you have this great idea that everyone's going to come join, but that's not how it works.
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Before product/market fit, your only job that matters is to build a great product.
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The biggest PR hack you can do, is not hire a PR firm.
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Most founders have not managed people before, and they certainly haven't managed managers.
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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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You can create value with breakthrough innovation, incremental refinement, or complex coordination. Great companies often do two of these. The very best companies do all three.
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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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... for the top twenty most valuable YC companies, all of them have at least two founders.
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Or a way to stay on strangers couches, that just sounds terrible all around.
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Most investors are obsessed with the market size today and they don't think about how the market is going to evolve.
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Most things are not as risky as they seem.
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In YC's case, the number one cause of early death for startups is cofounder blowups.
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Every company has a rocky beginning.
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If you compromise in the first five, ten hires it might kill the company.
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