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Why now, why is this the perfect time for this particular idea, and to start this particular company?

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Idea
Ideas
Time
Particular
Company
Start
Perfect

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You have to be decisive. Indecisiveness is a startup killer.
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Unfortunately the trick to great execution is to say no a lot.
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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.
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Developing a personal connection with anyone you're trying to do a big deal with is really important.
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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.
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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.
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Great execution towards a terrible idea will get you nowhere.
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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.
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A board member of mine used to say sales fix everything in a startup, and that is really true.
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You don't get to make their decisions but you do get to choose the decision makers.
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Obsess about the quality of the product.
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It really is true that you become an average of the people you spend the most time with.
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Remember that the idea will expand, and become more ambitious as you go.
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Because so few people make an actual long term commitment to what they're building, the ones that do have a huge advantage.
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Whatever the founder cares about, whatever the founders think are the key goals, that's going to be what the whole company focusses on.
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In general though, if you look at the track record of pivots, they don't become big companies.
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You're saying no ninety-seven times out of a hundred, and most founders find they have to make a very conscious effort to do this.
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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.
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If you want something in a deal, just ask for it.
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You should always know how you're doing against your metrics. You should always have a weekly review meeting every week.
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