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
company
Every company has a rocky beginning.
growth problem solve
Growth solves (nearly) all problems
two innovation three
You can create value with breakthrough innovation, incremental refinement, or complex coordination. Great companies often do two of these. The very best companies do all three.
baby trying conviction
If you pivot, do it fully and with conviction. The worst thing is to try to do a bit of the old and the new-it's hard to kill your babies.
love-you products users
It's better to have a few users love your product than for a lot of users to sort of like it.
easy building infrastructure
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.
building customers products
Be suspicious of any work that is not building product or getting customers.
thinking years want
You also really want to take the time to think about how the market is going to evolve.You need a market that's going to be big in 10 years.
ideas people want
You want an idea that not many other people are working on, and it's okay if it doesn't sound big at first.
ideas competition want
You want an idea that turns into a monopoly. But you can't get a monopoly, in a big market right away; too much competition for that.
real thinking long
So it's worth some real up front time to think through the long term value and the defensibility of the business.
successful ideas looks
If you look at successful pivots, they almost always are a pivot into something that the founder wanted. Not a random made up idea.
space pay brian
AirBnB happened because Brian Chesky couldn't pay his rent, but did have some space.
track records looks
In general though, if you look at the track record of pivots, they don't become big companies.