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These all sounded really bad, but they turned out to be good. If they had sounded really good, there would have been too many people working on them.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Really
Good
Would
People
Sounded
Turned
Working
Many

More quotes by Sam Altman

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You don't need to make the structure complicated, in fact you shouldn't. All you need is for every employee to know who their manager is.
Sam Altman
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... but the pendulum has swung way out of whack here. A bad idea is still bad, and the pivot happy world we're in today feels suboptimal.
Sam Altman
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Mediocre founders spend a lot of time talking about grand plans, but they never quite make a decision.
Sam Altman
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A single mediocre hire in the first five will often in fact kill a startup.
Sam Altman
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Before product/market fit, your only job that matters is to build a great product.
Sam Altman
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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.
Sam Altman
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Companies that I've been very involved with, that have had a very bad first hire in the first 3 or so employees never recover from it.
Sam Altman
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Startups are not the best choice for work-life balance, and that's sort of just the sad reality.
Sam Altman
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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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You also want to fire people who a) create office politics, and b) who are persistently negative.
Sam Altman
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Everyone starting a startup for the first time is scared, and everyone feels like a bit of an imposter.
Sam Altman
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Growth and momentum are what a startup lives on and you always have to focus on maintaining these.
Sam Altman
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So it's worth some real up front time to think through the long term value and the defensibility of the business.
Sam Altman
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Press releases are easier to write than code, and that is still easier than making a great product.
Sam Altman
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Most founders have not managed people before, and they certainly haven't managed managers.
Sam Altman
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The startups that do well are the ones that are working all the time.
Sam Altman
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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.
Sam Altman
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You should be able to describe any employee as an animal at what they do.
Sam Altman
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I really believe that the single hardest thing in business is building a company that does repeatable innovation... and just has this ongoing culture of excellence as it grows.
Sam Altman
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Unfortunately the trick to great execution is to say no a lot.
Sam Altman