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
Culture
Ongoing
Business
Excellence
Doe
Innovation
Thing
Hardest
Believe
Building
Really
Single
Grows
Company
Repeatable

More quotes by Sam Altman

Image
You can create value with breakthrough innovation, incremental refinement, or complex coordination. Great companies often do two of these. The very best companies do all three.
Sam Altman
Image
If it works out, you're going to be working on this for 10 years.
Sam Altman
Image
No growth hack, brilliant marketing idea, or sales team can save you long term if you don't have a sufficiently good product.
Sam Altman
Image
Don't let the company get distracted or excited about other things. A common mistake is that companies get excited by their own PR.
Sam Altman
Image
Losing focus is another way that founders get off track.
Sam Altman
Image
No matter what you choose, build stuff and be around smart people.
Sam Altman
Image
... fire fast when it's not working. It's better for the company, it's also better for the employee.
Sam Altman
Image
Startups are not the best choice for work-life balance, and that's sort of just the sad reality.
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
Image
The startups that do well are the ones that are working all the time.
Sam Altman
Image
For most of the early hires you make in a startup, experience doesn't matter very much, and you should go for aptitude.
Sam Altman
Image
You also want to fire people who a) create office politics, and b) who are persistently negative.
Sam Altman
Image
... 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.
Sam Altman
Image
The hard part is that this is a very fine line. There's right on one side of it, and crazy on the other.
Sam Altman
Image
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.
Sam Altman
Image
... how much time you should be spending on hiring? The answer is 0 or 25 percent.
Sam Altman
Image
You have to save the vision speeches for when the company is winning. When you're not winning, you just have to get momentum back.
Sam Altman
Image
You only get points when you make something the market wants. So if you work really hard on the wrong things, no one will care.
Sam Altman
Image
... but actually it sucks to have a lot of employees, and you should be proud of how few employees you have.
Sam Altman
Image
If you compromise in the first five, ten hires it might kill the company.
Sam Altman