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You want to sound crazy, but you want to actually be right.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Crazy
Actually
Sound
Right

More quotes by Sam Altman

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Be suspicious of any work that is not building product or getting customers.
Sam Altman
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When lack of structure fails, it fails all at once. What works totally fine from 0-20 employees, is disastrous at 30.
Sam Altman
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We talk to a team they've gotten new things done, that's the best predictor we have that a company will be successful.
Sam Altman
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In general though, if you look at the track record of pivots, they don't become big companies.
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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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.
Sam Altman
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Great execution towards a terrible idea will get you nowhere.
Sam Altman
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You need this sort of a tailwind to make a startup successful.
Sam Altman
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The single word that matters most I think to keep the company productive as it grows is alignment.
Sam Altman
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Most good founders that I know at any given time have a set of small overarching goals for the company that everybody in the company knows.
Sam Altman
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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
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If you don't need it yourself, and you're building something that someone else needs, realize you're at a big disadvantage.
Sam Altman
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Another way of looking at this, is that the best companies are almost always mission oriented.
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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No growth hack, brilliant marketing idea, or sales team can save you long term if you don't have a sufficiently good product.
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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One of the great and terrible things about starting a start up is that you get no credit for trying.
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.
Sam Altman
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What being a founder means, is signing up for this years long grind on execution - and you can't outsource this.
Sam Altman
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Momentum and growth are the lifeblood of startups. This is probably in the top three secrets of executing well.
Sam Altman