Sam Altman Quotes - Page 9

Quotes about:

• M&A negotiations feel really fun. This is one of the biggest killers of companies, is they entertain acquisition conversations.

  Sam Altman

  Fun, Killers, Acquisition

  4 Copy quote

• Most founders have not managed people before, and they certainly haven't managed managers.

  Sam Altman

  People, Founders, Havens

  4 Copy quote

• You'll get more support on a hard, important, project than a derivative one.

  Sam Altman

  Support, Important, Derivatives

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• You need someone that behaves like James Bond more than you need someone that is an expert in some particular domain.

  Sam Altman

  Team, Experts, Needs

  4 Copy quote

• The best ideas often look terrible at the beginning the truly good ideas, don't seem like they're worth stealing.

  Sam Altman

  Ideas, Looks, Stealing

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• So if you want a culture where people work hard, & pay attention to detail, focus on the customer, are frugal: you have to do it yourself.

  Sam Altman

  Hard Work, People, Focus

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• In general though, if you look at the track record of pivots, they don't become big companies.

  Sam Altman

  Track, Looks, Records

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• You need to figure out what the 2 or 3 most important things are, and then just do those.

  Sam Altman

  Important, Needs, Figures

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• You need this sort of a tailwind to make a startup successful.

  Sam Altman

  Successful, Needs

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• You have to be intense. This only comes from the CEO, this only comes from the founders.

  Sam Altman

  Intense, Ceo, Founders

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• 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.

  Sam Altman

  Ideas, Competition, Want

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• Most good founders that I know at any given time have a set of small overarching goals for the company that everybody in the company knows.

  Sam Altman

  Goal, Given, Founders

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• You want an idea that not many other people are working on, and it's okay if it doesn't sound big at first.

  Sam Altman

  Ideas, People, Sound

  4 Copy quote

• One of the keys to focus, and why I said cofounders that aren't friends really struggle, is that you can't be focused without good communication.

  Sam Altman

  Struggle, Communication, Said

  "Lecture 2: Ideas, Products, Teams and Execution Part II". Sam Altman's "How To Start a Startup" lecture to the class at Stanford University in Stanford, California, genius.com. 2014.

  4 Copy quote

• The hard part is that this is a very fine line. There's right on one side of it, and crazy on the other.

  Sam Altman

  Crazy, Lines, Sides

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• These all sounded really bad, but they turned out to be good. If they had sounded really good, there would have been too many people working on them.

  Sam Altman

  People, Be Good, Has Beens

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• ... the thing we see wrong with YC apps most frequently, is that people have not thought about the market first and what people want first.

  Sam Altman

  People, Want, Firsts

  4 Copy quote

• In the beginning of a company, there is no management and this actually works really well.

  Sam Altman

  Management, Wells, Company

  4 Copy quote

• Before 20 or 25 employees, most companies are structured with everyone reporting to the founder. It's totally flat.

  Sam Altman

  Employee, Founders, Flats

  4 Copy quote

• As the company grows and about this 25 or so employee size, your main job shifts from building a great product to building a great company.

  Sam Altman

  Jobs, Size, Building

  4 Copy quote

• We pretty much won't fund a company now where the founders don't have vested equity because it's just that hard to do.

  Sam Altman

  Team, Founders, Equity

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• What you want to do is innovate on your product and your business model, management structure is not where I would try and innovate.

  Sam Altman

  Trying, Want, Management

  4 Copy quote

• The most important thing is that there is clear reporting structure and everyone knows what it is.

  Sam Altman

  Important, Structure, Clear

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• 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.

  Sam Altman

  Needs, Facts, Complicated

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• ... but the pendulum has swung way out of whack here. A bad idea is still bad, and the pivot happy world we're in today feels suboptimal.

  Sam Altman

  Ideas, World, Today

  4 Copy quote

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