Quote

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

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
Time
Particular
Company
Start
Perfect
Idea
Ideas

More quotes by Sam Altman

Image
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
Image
If it works out, you're going to be working on this for 10 years.
Sam Altman
Image
... fire fast when it's not working. It's better for the company, it's also better for the employee.
Sam Altman
Image
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
Image
Startups are very hard no matter what you do you may as well go after a big opportunity.
Sam Altman
Image
If you want something in a deal, just ask for it.
Sam Altman
Image
In general though, if you look at the track record of pivots, they don't become big companies.
Sam Altman
Image
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
Image
The way to have a company that executes well is you have to execute well yourself.
Sam Altman
Image
For most of the early hires you make in a startup, experience doesn't matter very much, and you should go for aptitude.
Sam Altman
Image
It's easy to move fast or be obsessed with quality, but the trick is you have to do both at a startup.
Sam Altman
Image
The natural state of a start-up is to die most start-ups require multiple miracles in their early days to escape this fate.
Sam Altman
Image
You also want to fire people who a) create office politics, and b) who are persistently negative.
Sam Altman
Image
Losing focus is another way that founders get off track.
Sam Altman
Image
The most important thing is that there is clear reporting structure and everyone knows what it is.
Sam Altman
Image
Because so few people make an actual long term commitment to what they're building, the ones that do have a huge advantage.
Sam Altman
Image
In YC's case, the number one cause of early death for startups is cofounder blowups.
Sam Altman
Image
The second part of how to hire: try not to.
Sam Altman
Image
... for the top twenty most valuable YC companies, all of them have at least two founders.
Sam Altman
Image
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