Sam Altman Quotes - Page 6

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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

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

  Sam Altman

  Keys, Metrics, Months

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

  Sam Altman

  Hard Work, Enough, Hard

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• You have to find a small market in which you can get a monopoly and then quickly expand.

  Sam Altman

  Monopoly

  "Lecture 1: How to Start a Startup". Sam Altman's lecture to the class at Stanford University in Stanford, California, genius.com. 2014.

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

  Sam Altman

  Ideas, Firsts, Should

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• It's better to have a few users love your product than for a lot of users to sort of like it.

  Sam Altman

  Love You, Products, Users

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• Before product/market fit, your only job that matters is to build a great product.

  Sam Altman

  Jobs, Matter, Fit

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• You want to think about what is the path for my first 10 or 15 employees going to be as the company grows.

  Sam Altman

  Thinking, Firsts, Want

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• 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

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• Long term thinking is so rare anywhere, but especially in startups. This is a huge advantage if you do it.

  Sam Altman

  Thinking, Long, Advantage

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• We talk to a team they've gotten new things done, that's the best predictor we have that a company will be successful.

  Sam Altman

  Team, Successful, Done

  "Lecture 2: Ideas, Products, Teams and Execution Part II". "How to Start a Startup" lecture, Stanford, genius.com. September 25, 2014.

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• Momentum and growth are the lifeblood of startups. This is probably in the top three secrets of executing well.

  Sam Altman

  Secret, Growth, Three

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• 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

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• Growth and momentum are what a startup lives on and you always have to focus on maintaining these.

  Sam Altman

  Focus, Growth, Momentum

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• 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

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• 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

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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

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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.

  Sam Altman

  Team, Thinking, Bars

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

  Sam Altman

  Team, Perfect, Founders

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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

  Team, Done, Made

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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

  Building, Easy, Spirals

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

  Sam Altman

  Years, Ideas, Matter

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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.

  Sam Altman

  Common, Cases, Advise

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• 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

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• 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

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