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
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.
people schedules should
So you should always stay on top of people's vesting schedules.
thinking years leaving
You never want to be in a place where an employee has vested 3 out of the 4 years of stock and they start thinking about leaving.
jobs matter fit
Before product/market fit, your only job that matters is to build a great product.
trying want management
What you want to do is innovate on your product and your business model, management structure is not where I would try and innovate.
facts needs complicated
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.
employee founders company
Before 20 or 25 employees, most companies are structured with everyone reporting to the founder. It's totally flat.
writing two wish
Two other things that we hear again and again from our founders, they wish they had done earlier, and that is... simply writing down how you do things and why you do things.
people founders compensation
In the early days of a startup, people's compensation is whatever you negotiate with a founder and it's all over the place.
band grows feels
As you grow, it feels hopelessly corporate but it really is worth putting in place these compensation bands.