Quote

If it takes more than a sentence to explain what you are doing, it's almost always a sign that what you are doing is too complicated.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Sentence
Sentences
Explain
Sign
Complicated
Takes
Almost
Always

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Cofounder relationships are among the most important in the entire company.
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... if you talk to say any of the first 40 or 50 employees, they all feel like they were a part of the founding of the company.
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One thing that founders always underestimate is how hard it is to recruit.
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AirBnB spent 5 months interviewing their first employee, before they hired someone and in their first year, they only hired 2 people.
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Some day everyone will find out everyone else's comp, if it's all over the place, it will be a complete meltdown disaster
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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.
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Unfortunately the trick to great execution is to say no a lot.
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You need conviction in your own beliefs, and the willingness to ignore others naysaying.
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Because it's one of these sort of connections between nodes- every pair of people adds communication overhead.
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... how much time you should be spending on hiring? The answer is 0 or 25 percent.
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The biggest PR hack you can do, is not hire a PR firm.
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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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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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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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As you grow, it feels hopelessly corporate but it really is worth putting in place these compensation bands.
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You really want to know your cofounders for a while, ideally years.
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The most important thing is that there is clear reporting structure and everyone knows what it is.
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At the beginning, you should only hire when you have a desperate need to.
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Before product/market fit, your only job that matters is to build a great product.
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Move fast. Speed is one of your main advantages over large companies.
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