Sam Altman Quotes - Page 6

Quotes about:

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

  Sam Altman

  Giving Up, Giving, Levels

  4 Copy quote

• ... 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

  Fire, Everyday, Knows

  4 Copy quote

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

  Sam Altman

  Years, Work Out, Ifs

  4 Copy quote

• In the early days of a startup, people's compensation is whatever you negotiate with a founder and it's all over the place.

  Sam Altman

  People, Founders, Compensation

  4 Copy quote

• I myself used to believe ideas didn't matter that much, but I'm very sure that's wrong now.

  Sam Altman

  Believe, Ideas, Matter

  4 Copy quote

• You can basically change everything in a startup but the market.

  Sam Altman

  4 Copy quote

• If you compromise and hire someone mediocre you will always regret it.

  Sam Altman

  Regret, Team, Compromise

  4 Copy quote

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

  Sam Altman

  Trying, Important, Connections

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• ... if you talk to say any of the first 40 or 50 employees, they all feel like they were a part of the founding of the company.

  Sam Altman

  Team, Firsts, Employee

  4 Copy quote

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

  Sam Altman

  Team, Proud, Should

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Sam Altman

  Crazy, Ideas, Want

  4 Copy quote

• If you want something in a deal, just ask for it.

  Sam Altman

  Want Something, Deals, Ifs

  4 Copy quote

• Share results (financial and key metrics) with the company every month.

  Sam Altman

  Keys, Metrics, Months

  4 Copy quote

• If someone is choosing between joining McKinsey or your startup it's very unlikely they're going to work out at the startup.

  Sam Altman

  Team, Work Out, Joining

  "Lecture 2: Ideas, Products, Teams and Execution Part II". Sam Altman's "How To Start a Startup" lecture to the class at Stanford University in Stanford, California, genius.com. 2014.

  4 Copy quote

• You have to let your team get all the credit for all the good stuff that happens, and you take responsibility for the bad stuff.

  Sam Altman

  Team, Responsibility, Credit

  4 Copy quote

• There's at least a hundred times more people with great ideas than people that are willing to put in the effort to execute them well.

  Sam Altman

  Ideas, People, Effort

  4 Copy quote

• ... 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

  Team, Thinking, Bars

  4 Copy quote

• In YC experience, 2 or 3 co-founders seems to be about perfect.

  Sam Altman

  Team, Perfect, Founders

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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

  Team, Firsts, Employee

  4 Copy quote

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

  Sam Altman

  Team, Done, Made

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Building, Easy, Spirals

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Sam Altman

  Common, Cases, Advise

  4 Copy quote

• It's become popular in recent years to say that the idea doesn't matter.

  Sam Altman

  Years, Ideas, Matter

  4 Copy quote

• Most investors are obsessed with the market size today and they don't think about how the market is going to evolve.

  Sam Altman

  Thinking, Today, Size

  8 Copy quote

• Some day everyone will find out everyone else's comp, if it's all over the place, it will be a complete meltdown disaster

  Sam Altman

  Disaster, Meltdowns, Ifs

  7 Copy quote

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