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
people speak
People appreciate when you make an effort to speak their language.
calling mistake people small stupid understand
People always make the mistake of calling an idea small or stupid because they don't understand how it's going to evolve.
I think you can say a lot of evil behavior by companies is short-term optimization.
company founder investors
If a company is profitable, the founder is in control. If it's not, investors are in control.
good nearly people spend time
I don't think people spend nearly enough time thinking about what they like and what they're good at.
caught complex email few head leave meetings office review roughly schedule top work
I get up late, have an espresso, and immediately start work. I try to get roughly caught up on email before I leave the house, then if I need to write anything or review a complex deal, I do that, and then I head to the office and work on my top few priorities for the day. I try to schedule my meetings in the afternoon.
billion companies difficult fund job partners worth
I always tell my partners that our job is to fund all the companies we can that can be worth $10 billion or more. That's such a difficult constraint, we can't have any other constraints.
buy freedom happiness lack money whether
Whether or not money can buy happiness, it can buy freedom, and that's a big deal. Also, lack of money is very stressful.
ambitious time work
Very ambitious startups often take a long time to work - or sometimes they take a very long time to look ambitious.
business companies point technology
The point of an accelerator is to teach you about companies and business, not about technology.
whoever work works
Whoever Boost works with, Sprint will work with. And whoever Sprint works with, Verizon and AT&T will as well.
advertising local retailers spread
Traditional local advertising is not what retailers want. They want not just for you to see an ad - they want you to come into the store, to be a repeat customer and to spread the word.
ambitious believe critically future people trend whatever worth
I believe whatever smart, ambitious people are working on will be the trend of the future. I do think that it's worth thinking critically about what the future will be.
time
The start-ups that do well are the ones that are working all the time.