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
life-and-death long succeed
Starting a business is like riding a wave between life and death. If you can hang on long enough, you're bound to succeed
long beats bigger
As long as you keep doing the right thing and have the best product, you can beat the bigger company.
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.
team fire long
Every first time founder waits too long, everyone hopes that an employee will turn around. But the right answer is to fire fast...
mean years long
What being a founder means, is signing up for this years long grind on execution - and you can't outsource this.
thinking long advantage
Long term thinking is so rare anywhere, but especially in startups. This is a huge advantage if you do it.
commitment long people
Because so few people make an actual long term commitment to what they're building, the ones that do have a huge advantage.
team ideas long
No growth hack, brilliant marketing idea, or sales team can save you long term if you don't have a sufficiently good product.
consumers tap
With Loopt Star, consumers get to tap interactive rewards wherever they may be.
time
The start-ups that do well are the ones that are working all the time.
companies facebook good google hit incredible job observed public standing terrible
Being a public company is really terrible for most companies. I'd say Facebook and Google have done a pretty good job of standing up to the incredible quarterly pressure to hit numbers, but most companies - and I've observed a lot now - don't do a very good job of that.
cool fund
The thing about Y Combinator that's cool is that most companies won't happen if we don't fund them.
case jobs technology time
Technology magnifies differences, and it's been replacing or obviating jobs for a long time. But what happens as that case accelerates? I'm not one of these doomsayers who says, 'There will be no jobs.'
best fund people
Sometimes people think Y Combinator has big ideas about themes. But really, we just fund the best startups.