Quote

I really believe that the single hardest thing in business is building a company that does repeatable innovation... and just has this ongoing culture of excellence as it grows.

Sam Altman

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Company
Repeatable
Culture
Ongoing
Business
Excellence
Doe
Innovation
Thing
Hardest
Believe
Building
Really
Single
Grows

More quotes by Sam Altman

Image
Founders are usually very stingy with equity to employees and very generous with equity to investors. I think this is totally backwards.
Sam Altman
Image
You don't get to make their decisions but you do get to choose the decision makers.
Sam Altman
Image
It's easy to move fast or be obsessed with quality, but the trick is you have to do both at a startup.
Sam Altman
Image
When it comes to starting startups, in many ways, it's easier to start a hard startup than an easy startup.
Sam Altman
Image
One thing that founders always underestimate is how hard it is to recruit.
Sam Altman
Image
In YC's case, the number one cause of early death for startups is cofounder blowups.
Sam Altman
Image
Mediocre founders spend a lot of time talking about grand plans, but they never quite make a decision.
Sam Altman
Image
You think you have this great idea that everyone's going to come join, but that's not how it works.
Sam Altman
Image
When lack of structure fails, it fails all at once. What works totally fine from 0-20 employees, is disastrous at 30.
Sam Altman
Image
If you compromise in the first five, ten hires it might kill the company.
Sam Altman
Image
Why now, why is this the perfect time for this particular idea, and to start this particular company?
Sam Altman
Image
In the early stage of a startup, hiring senior people is usually a mistake. You just want people that get stuff done.
Sam Altman
Image
In general, it's best if you're building something that you yourself need.
Sam Altman
Image
A small communication breakdown is enough for everyone to be working on slightly different things. And then you loose focus.
Sam Altman
Image
The company just needs to see you as like this maniacal execution machine.
Sam Altman
Image
Because so few people make an actual long term commitment to what they're building, the ones that do have a huge advantage.
Sam Altman
Image
A board member of mine used to say sales fix everything in a startup, and that is really true.
Sam Altman
Image
The cost of getting an early hire wrong is really high.
Sam Altman
Image
Before product/market fit, your only job that matters is to build a great product.
Sam Altman
Image
To get the very best people- they have a lot of great options, and so it can easily take a year to recruit someone.
Sam Altman