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The thing that kills startups at some level, is the founders giving up.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Thing
Kills
Founders
Level
Levels
Giving

More quotes by Sam Altman

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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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The startups that do well are the ones that are working all the time.
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Startups are very hard no matter what you do you may as well go after a big opportunity.
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If you don't need it yourself, and you're building something that someone else needs, realize you're at a big disadvantage.
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Startups are not the best choice for work-life balance, and that's sort of just the sad reality.
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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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When lack of structure fails, it fails all at once. What works totally fine from 0-20 employees, is disastrous at 30.
Sam Altman
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The way to have a company that executes well is you have to execute well yourself.
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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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It's easy to move fast or be obsessed with quality, but the trick is you have to do both at a startup.
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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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You need unstoppable people. You want people that are just going to get it done.
Sam Altman
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You don't get to make their decisions but you do get to choose the decision makers.
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You certainly don't need to have everything figured out in the path from here to world domination.
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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One thing that founders forget is that after they hire employees, they have to retain them.
Sam Altman
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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.
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Most things are not as risky as they seem.
Sam Altman
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Most of the best hires that I've made in my entire life have never done that thing before.
Sam Altman
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Companies that I've been very involved with, that have had a very bad first hire in the first 3 or so employees never recover from it.
Sam Altman