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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
Done
People
Hiring
Senior
Early
Usually
Stage
Mistake
Stuff

More quotes by Sam Altman

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The most common post YC failure case for the companies we fund, is they're incredibly focussed during YC on their company... and after they start doing a lot of other things. They advise companies, they go to conferences, whatever.
Sam Altman
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... you want to be proud of how much you can get done with a small numbers of employees.
Sam Altman
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As the company grows and about this 25 or so employee size, your main job shifts from building a great product to building a great company.
Sam Altman
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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.
Sam Altman
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In general though, if you look at the track record of pivots, they don't become big companies.
Sam Altman
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You don't need to make the structure complicated, in fact you shouldn't. All you need is for every employee to know who their manager is.
Sam Altman
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1 of the hardest parts about being a founder, is that there are a 100 important things competing for your attention each day.
Sam Altman
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... and you can only have 2 or 3 things everyday, because everything else will just come at you you know fires in a day.
Sam Altman
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In general, it's best if you're building something that you yourself need.
Sam Altman
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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.
Sam Altman
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Growth and momentum are what a startup lives on and you always have to focus on maintaining these.
Sam Altman
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Most startups are not nearly focussed enough. They work hard...maybe, but they don't work hard on the right things.
Sam Altman
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One of the biggest advantages that start ups have is execution speed and you have to have this relentless operating rhythm.
Sam Altman
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The way to have a company that executes well is you have to execute well yourself.
Sam Altman
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Every company has a rocky beginning.
Sam Altman
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Mediocre founders spend a lot of time talking about grand plans, but they never quite make a decision.
Sam Altman
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You should think about for the next 10 years, you're going to be giving out 3-5% of the company every year.
Sam Altman
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... the thing we see wrong with YC apps most frequently, is that people have not thought about the market first and what people want first.
Sam Altman
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We talk to a team they've gotten new things done, that's the best predictor we have that a company will be successful.
Sam Altman
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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