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It really is true that you become an average of the people you spend the most time with.

Sam Altman

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Sam Altman
Age: 39
Born: 1985
Born: April 22
Entrepreneur
Chicago
Illinois
Samuel H. Altman
Samuel Altman
Time
People
Average
Spend
True
Become
Really

More quotes by Sam Altman

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For most software startups, this translates to keep growing. For hardware startups, it translates to don't let your ship date slip.
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If it works out, you're going to be working on this for 10 years.
Sam Altman
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The track record for founders that don't already know each other is really bad.
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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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Be suspicious of any work that is not building product or getting customers.
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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.
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I believe in fighting with investors to reduce the amount of equity they get and then being as generous as you possibly can with employees.
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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.
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If you compromise and hire someone mediocre you will always regret it.
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Starting a business is like riding a wave between life and death. If you can hang on long enough, you're bound to succeed
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These all sounded really bad, but they turned out to be good. If they had sounded really good, there would have been too many people working on them.
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... for the top twenty most valuable YC companies, all of them have at least two founders.
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You need conviction in your own beliefs, and the willingness to ignore others naysaying.
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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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At the beginning, you should only hire when you have a desperate need to.
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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.
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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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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.
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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Momentum and growth are the lifeblood of startups. This is probably in the top three secrets of executing well.
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