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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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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Else
Someone
Need
Disadvantage
Needs
Disadvantages
Something
Realize
Building
Realizing
Bigs

More quotes by 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.
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Every company has a rocky beginning.
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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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The other piece besides focus for execution is intensity. Startups only work at a fairly intense level.
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You think you have this great idea that everyone's going to come join, but that's not how it works.
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... for the top twenty most valuable YC companies, all of them have at least two founders.
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If it works out, you're going to be working on this for 10 years.
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You really want to know your cofounders for a while, ideally years.
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Long term thinking is so rare anywhere, but especially in startups. This is a huge advantage if you do it.
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Ideas by themselves are not worth anything, only executing well is what creates value.
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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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The natural state of a start-up is to die most start-ups require multiple miracles in their early days to escape this fate.
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Everyone starting a startup for the first time is scared, and everyone feels like a bit of an imposter.
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Before product/market fit, your only job that matters is to build a great product.
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If someone is getting every decision wrong, that's when you need to act, and at that point it'll be painfully aware to everyone.
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The single word that matters most I think to keep the company productive as it grows is alignment.
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Firing people is one of the worst parts of running a company. Actually in my own experience, I think it is the worst.
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You only get points when you make something the market wants. So if you work really hard on the wrong things, no one will care.
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Losing focus is another way that founders get off track.
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One thing I tell startups all the time is that the best way to grow is to make their product better.
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