Entrepreneurship Quotes by Sam Altman

One thing I tell startups all the time is that the best way to grow is to make their product better.

— Sam Altman

The thing that kills startups at some level, is the founders giving up.

— Sam Altman

Startups are not the best choice for work-life balance, and that's sort of just the sad reality.

— Sam Altman

Startups are very hard no matter what you do; you may as well go after a big opportunity.

— Sam Altman

There's no way I know, to get through the pain of a startup without belief that the mission really matters.

— Sam Altman

You can have a startup and one other thing, you can have a family, but you probably can't have many other things.

— Sam Altman

It's better to have no cofounder than to have a bad cofounder, but it's still bad to be a solo founder.

— Sam Altman

Whatever the founder cares about, whatever the founders think are the key goals, that's going to be what the whole company focusses…

— Sam Altman

We hear again and again from founders, that they wish they had waited to start a startup until they came up with…

— Sam Altman

When it comes to starting startups, in many ways, it's easier to start a hard startup than an easy startup.

— Sam Altman

The startups that do well are the ones that are working all the time.

— Sam Altman

If someone is choosing between joining McKinsey or your startup it's very unlikely they're going to work out at the startup.

— Sam Altman

In the early stage of a startup, hiring senior people is usually a mistake. You just want people that get stuff done.

— Sam Altman

The track record for founders that don't already know each other is really bad.

— Sam Altman

1 of the hardest parts about being a founder, is that there are a 100 important things competing for your attention each day.

— Sam Altman

Founders are usually very stingy with equity to employees and very generous with equity to investors. I think this is totally backwards.

— Sam Altman

In general don't start a startup you're not willing to work on for ten years.

— Sam Altman

Everyone starting a startup for the first time is scared, and everyone feels like a bit of an imposter.

— Sam Altman

In the early days of a startup, people's compensation is whatever you negotiate with a founder and it's all over the place.

— Sam Altman

Founders need to figure out what the message of the company is going to be.

— Sam Altman

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

— Sam Altman

It takes years and years, usually a decade, to create a great startup.

— Sam Altman

More important than starting any startup, is getting to know a lot of potential co-founders.

— Sam Altman

One thing that founders always underestimate is how hard it is to recruit.

— Sam Altman

Even though plans themselves are worthless, the exercise of planning is very valuable and totally missing in most startups today.

— Sam Altman