Sam Altman Quotes - Page 7

Quotes about:

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

  Sam Altman

  Working All The Time, Wells

  6 Copy quote

• For most software startups, this translates to keep growing. For hardware startups, it translates to don't let your ship date slip.

  Sam Altman

  Growing, Ships, Software

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• Employees will only add more value over time.

  Sam Altman

  Team, Add, Employee

  "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.

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• Or a way to stay on strangers couches, that just sounds terrible all around.

  Sam Altman

  Sound, Way, Stranger

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• The tenth social network, and limited only to college students with no money, also terrible. Myspace had won.

  Sam Altman

  College, Students, Social Network

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• Really dig into projects people have worked on and call references; that is another thing that first time founders like to skip.

  Sam Altman

  Team, People, Firsts

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• A single mediocre hire in the first five will often in fact kill a startup.

  Sam Altman

  Team, Firsts, Facts

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• A related advantage of mission oriented ideas, is that you yourself will be dedicated to them.

  Sam Altman

  Ideas, Advantage, Missions

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• One of the pieces of advice that we give at YC is: try to work together on a project rather than just doing an interview.

  Sam Altman

  Team, Giving, Advice

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• We hear again and again from founders, that they wish they had waited to start a startup until they came up with an idea they really loved.

  Sam Altman

  Ideas, Wish, Founders

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• It's difficult to get large groups of people, to the extreme levels of focus and productivity that you need, for a startup to be successful.

  Sam Altman

  Successful, People, Focus

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• The way to have a company that executes well is you have to execute well yourself.

  Sam Altman

  Way, Wells, Company

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• You need this sort of a tailwind to make a startup successful.

  Sam Altman

  Successful, Needs

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• Before 20 or 25 employees, most companies are structured with everyone reporting to the founder. It's totally flat.

  Sam Altman

  Employee, Founders, Flats

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• The most important thing is that there is clear reporting structure and everyone knows what it is.

  Sam Altman

  Important, Structure, Clear

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• Most founders have not managed people before, and they certainly haven't managed managers.

  Sam Altman

  People, Founders, Havens

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• What you want to do is innovate on your product and your business model, management structure is not where I would try and innovate.

  Sam Altman

  Trying, Want, Management

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• The best ideas often look terrible at the beginning the truly good ideas, don't seem like they're worth stealing.

  Sam Altman

  Ideas, Looks, Stealing

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• The way you get deals done and the way you get good terms, is to have a competitive situation.

  Sam Altman

  Way, Done, Situation

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• The biggest PR hack you can do, is not hire a PR firm.

  Sam Altman

  Firm, Can Do, Hacks

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• You don't need to make the structure complicated, in fact you shouldn't. All you need is for every employee to know who their manager is.

  Sam Altman

  Needs, Facts, Complicated

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

  Sam Altman

  Moving, Speed, Advantage

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• Once your product is working, switch from not caring about this to caring about this a little bit.

  Sam Altman

  Caring, Littles, Little Bit

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• M&A negotiations feel really fun. This is one of the biggest killers of companies, is they entertain acquisition conversations.

  Sam Altman

  Fun, Killers, Acquisition

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• Losing focus is another way that founders get off track.

  Sam Altman

  Track, Focus, Way

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