Quote

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

Sam Altman

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Make
Sort
Successful
Need
Needs

More quotes by Sam Altman

Image
Great execution towards a terrible idea will get you nowhere.
Sam Altman
Image
Starting a business is like riding a wave between life and death. If you can hang on long enough, you're bound to succeed
Sam Altman
Image
Move fast. Speed is one of your main advantages over large companies.
Sam Altman
Image
Later, you should learn to hire fast and scale up the company, but in the early days the goal should be not to hire. Not to hire.
Sam Altman
Image
So you should always stay on top of people's vesting schedules.
Sam Altman
Image
Unfortunately the trick to great execution is to say no a lot.
Sam Altman
Image
The second part of how to hire: try not to.
Sam Altman
Image
You cannot create a market that doesn't want to exist.
Sam Altman
Image
You need conviction in your own beliefs, and the willingness to ignore others naysaying.
Sam Altman
Image
... 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
Image
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.
Sam Altman
Image
Or a way to stay on strangers couches, that just sounds terrible all around.
Sam Altman
Image
... 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
Image
Why now, why is this the perfect time for this particular idea, and to start this particular company?
Sam Altman
Image
You should think about for the next 10 years, you're going to be giving out 3-5% of the company every year.
Sam Altman
Image
One thing I tell startups all the time is that the best way to grow is to make their product better.
Sam Altman
Image
So always keep momentum, it's this prime directive for managing a startup.
Sam Altman
Image
Momentum and growth are the lifeblood of startups. This is probably in the top three secrets of executing well.
Sam Altman
Image
In general, it's best if you're building something that you yourself need.
Sam Altman
Image
To get the very best people- they have a lot of great options, and so it can easily take a year to recruit someone.
Sam Altman