Sam Altman
Sam Altman
Samuel H. "Sam" Altmanis an American entrepreneur, programmer, venture capitalist and blogger. He is the president of Y Combinator and co-chairman of OpenAI...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBusinessman
CountryUnited States of America
team aptitude matter
For most of the early hires you make in a startup, experience doesn't matter very much, and you should go for aptitude.
team roles matter
Experience matters for some roles and not others.
talking decision never-quit
Mediocre founders spend a lot of time talking about grand plans, but they never quite make a decision.
jobs size building
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.
mind littles pins
Just put a little pin in your mind: when you cross 50 employees, there are a new set of HR rules that you have to comply with.
thinking numbers squares
As you grow, the productivity I think, goes down with the square of the number of employees if you don't make an effort.
communication people add
Because it's one of these sort of connections between nodes- every pair of people adds communication overhead.
thinking matter company
The single word that matters most I think to keep the company productive as it grows is alignment.
believe innovation excellence
I really believe that the single hardest thing in business is building a company that does repeatable innovation... and just has this ongoing culture of excellence as it grows.
senior mistake people
In the early stage of a startup, hiring senior people is usually a mistake. You just want people that get stuff done.
thinking path firsts
You want to think about what is the path for my first 10 or 15 employees going to be as the company grows.
fun killers acquisition
M&A negotiations feel really fun. This is one of the biggest killers of companies, is they entertain acquisition conversations.
giving-up giving levels
The thing that kills startups at some level, is the founders giving up.
caring littles bits
Once your product is working, switch from not caring about this to caring about this a little bit.