Quote

In the early stage of a startup, hiring senior people is usually a mistake. You just want people that get stuff done.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Stage
Mistake
Stuff
Done
People
Hiring
Senior
Early
Usually

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You certainly don't need to have everything figured out in the path from here to world domination.
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If you want something in a deal, just ask for it.
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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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Long term thinking is so rare anywhere, but especially in startups. This is a huge advantage if you do it.
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Move fast. Speed is one of your main advantages over large companies.
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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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Founders need to figure out what the message of the company is going to be.
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You need to have a culture where people have very high quality standards in everything the company does, but still move quickly.
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... you want to be proud of how much you can get done with a small numbers of employees.
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Obsess about the quality of the product.
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Every company has a rocky beginning.
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The biggest PR hack you can do, is not hire a PR firm.
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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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So always keep momentum, it's this prime directive for managing a startup.
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Growth and momentum are what a startup lives on and you always have to focus on maintaining these.
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I believe in fighting with investors to reduce the amount of equity they get and then being as generous as you possibly can with employees.
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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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You have to let your team get all the credit for all the good stuff that happens, and you take responsibility for the bad stuff.
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... but actually it sucks to have a lot of employees, and you should be proud of how few employees you have.
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You can have a startup and one other thing, you can have a family, but you probably can't have many other things.
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