Sam Altman Quotes

There are 3 things I look for when I hire people. Are they smart? Do they get things done? Do I want to spend a lot of time around them?

Great execution towards a terrible idea will get you nowhere.

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

Developing a personal connection with anyone you're trying to do a big deal with is really important.

In addition to relentlessly resourceful, you want a tough and a calm cofounder.

For early employees you want people that have somewhat of a risk-taking attitude.

It's better to have no cofounder than to have a bad cofounder, but it's still bad to be a solo founder.

You want to sound crazy, but you want to actually be right.

A third advantage of mission oriented companies, is that people outside the company are more willing to help you.

At the beginning, you should only hire when you have a desperate need to.

... and you can only have 2 or 3 things everyday, because everything else will just come at you; you know fires in a day.

Startups are very hard no matter what you do; you may as well go after a big opportunity.

Why now, why is this the perfect time for this particular idea, and to start this particular company?

Most startups are not nearly focussed enough. They work hard...maybe, but they don't work hard on the right things.

If it works out, you're going to be working on this for 10 years.

The best people know that they should join a rocketship.

If someone is getting every decision wrong, that's when you need to act, and at that point it'll be painfully aware to everyone.

One thing I tell startups all the time is that the best way to grow is to make their product better.

When it comes to starting startups, in many ways, it's easier to start a hard startup than an easy startup.

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.

When lack of structure fails, it fails all at once. What works totally fine from 0-20 employees, is disastrous at 30.

The track record for founders that don't already know each other is really bad.

You need unstoppable people. You want people that are just going to get it done.

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.

Firing people is one of the worst parts of running a company. Actually in my own experience, I think it is the worst.

The hard part is that this is a very fine line. There's right on one side of it, and crazy on the other.

Someday, you need to build a business that's difficult to replicate. This is an important part of a good idea.

The idea should come first, the startup should come second.

Remember that you are more likely to die because you execute badly than get crushed by a competitor.

By the way, that's my number one piece of advice if you're going to join a startup: pick a rocket ship.

A winning team feels good and keeps winning. A team that hasn't won in a while gets demotivated and keeps losing.

You can't be focussed without really great communication

In general don't start a startup you're not willing to work on for ten years.

The startups that do well are the ones that are working all the time.

Starting a business is like riding a wave between life and death. If you can hang on long enough, you're bound to succeed

... the thing we see wrong with YC apps most frequently, is that people have not thought about the market first and what people want first.

You need to figure out what the 2 or 3 most important things are, and then just do those.

... how much time you should be spending on hiring? The answer is 0 or 25 percent.

The cost of getting an early hire wrong is really high.

Study the unusually successful people you know, and you will find them imbued with enthusiasm for their work which is contagious. Not only are they themselves excited about what they are doing, but they also get you excited

Most of the best hires that I've made in my entire life have never done that thing before.

You need conviction in your own beliefs, and the willingness to ignore others naysaying.

Move fast. Speed is one of your main advantages over large companies.

You want an idea about what you can say. I know it sounds like a bad idea but here's specifically why its actually a great one. You want to sound crazy but you want to ask to be right.

If you can just learn to think about the market first, you will have a big leg up on most people starting startups.

I think as a rough estimate, you should aim to give about 10% of the company to the first 10 employees.

... but actually it sucks to have a lot of employees, and you should be proud of how few employees you have.

... fire fast when it's not working. It's better for the company, it's also better for the employee.