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
momentum competitors one-thing
One thing that often disrupts momentum and really shouldn't is competitors.
winning vision speech
You have to save the vision speeches for when the company is winning. When you're not winning, you just have to get momentum back...
team phrases resourceful
At YC we have this public phrase, and it's relentlessly resourceful.
team firsts employee
... if you talk to say any of the first 40 or 50 employees, they all feel like they were a part of the founding of the company.
effort saying-no seven
You're saying no ninety-seven times out of a hundred, and most founders find they have to make a very conscious effort to do this.
execution tricks
Unfortunately the trick to great execution is to say no a lot.
team underestimate founders
One thing that founders always underestimate is how hard it is to recruit.
failing fine structure
When lack of structure fails, it fails all at once. What works totally fine from 0-20 employees, is disastrous at 30.
important structure clear
The most important thing is that there is clear reporting structure and everyone knows what it is.
team thinking ideas
You think you have this great idea that everyone's going to come join, but that's not how it works.
team want calm
In addition to relentlessly resourceful, you want a tough and a calm cofounder.
team years want
You really want to know your cofounders for a while, ideally years.
team years people
AirBnB spent 5 months interviewing their first employee, before they hired someone and in their first year, they only hired 2 people.
college students social-network
The tenth social network, and limited only to college students with no money, also terrible. Myspace had won.