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You need this sort of a tailwind to make a startup successful.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
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More quotes by 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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You also want to fire people who a) create office politics, and b) who are persistently negative.
Sam Altman
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In addition to relentlessly resourceful, you want a tough and a calm cofounder.
Sam Altman
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For most software startups, this translates to keep growing. For hardware startups, it translates to don't let your ship date slip.
Sam Altman
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In YC's case, the number one cause of early death for startups is cofounder blowups.
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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The best ideas often look terrible at the beginning the truly good ideas, don't seem like they're worth stealing.
Sam Altman
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Remember that the idea will expand, and become more ambitious as you go.
Sam Altman
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You can basically change everything in a startup but the market.
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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... 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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Developing a personal connection with anyone you're trying to do a big deal with is really important.
Sam Altman
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Most of the best hires that I've made in my entire life have never done that thing before.
Sam Altman
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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.
Sam Altman
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If you pivot, do it fully and with conviction. The worst thing is to try to do a bit of the old and the new-it's hard to kill your babies.
Sam Altman
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So always keep momentum, it's this prime directive for managing a startup.
Sam Altman
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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.
Sam Altman
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Most things are not as risky as they seem.
Sam Altman
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Employees will only add more value over time.
Sam Altman
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Before product/market fit, your only job that matters is to build a great product.
Sam Altman