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Most founders have not managed people before, and they certainly haven't managed managers.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Managers
Havens
Haven
Certainly
People
Founders
Managed

More quotes by Sam Altman

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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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The way to have a company that executes well is you have to execute well yourself.
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At the beginning, you should only hire when you have a desperate need to.
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So you should always stay on top of people's vesting schedules.
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Be suspicious of any work that is not building product or getting customers. It's easy to get sucked into an infrastructure rewrite death spiral.
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You really want to know your cofounders for a while, ideally years.
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You cannot create a market that doesn't want to exist.
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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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If you compromise in the first five, ten hires it might kill the company.
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You need conviction in your own beliefs, and the willingness to ignore others naysaying.
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Great execution towards a terrible idea will get you nowhere.
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You need unstoppable people. You want people that are just going to get it done.
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Later, you should learn to hire fast and scale up the company, but in the early days the goal should be not to hire. Not to hire.
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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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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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Every company has a rocky beginning.
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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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Don't let the company get distracted or excited about other things. A common mistake is that companies get excited by their own PR.
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A single mediocre hire in the first five will often in fact kill a startup.
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