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 giving advice
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.
team done made
Most of the best hires that I've made in my entire life have never done that thing before.
firm hacks can-do
The biggest PR hack you can do, is not hire a PR firm.
employee founders company
Before 20 or 25 employees, most companies are structured with everyone reporting to the founder. It's totally flat.
management wells company
In the beginning of a company, there is no management and this actually works really well.
successful years data
We've seen a lot of data at YC now, and the most successful companies and the ones where the investors do the best... end up giving a lot of stock out to employees- year after year after year.
moving done founders
The best founders work on things that seem small but they move really quickly. They get things done really quickly.
moving quality easy
It's easy to move fast or be obsessed with quality, but the trick is you have to do both at a startup.
hobbies
You can have a startup and one other thing, you can have a family, but you probably can't have many other hobbies.
moving people quality
You need to have a culture where people have very high quality standards in everything the company does, but still move quickly.
team perfect founders
In YC experience, 2 or 3 co-founders seems to be about perfect.
team numbers causes
In YC's case, the number one cause of early death for startups is cofounder blowups.
moving speed advantage
Move fast. Speed is one of your main advantages over large companies.
experts needs domain
You need someone that behaves like James Bond more than you need someone that is an expert in some particular domain.