Founders Quotes by Sam Altman

Losing focus is another way that founders get off track.

— Sam Altman

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

— Sam Altman

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

— 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

One thing that founders forget is that after they hire employees, they have to retain them.

— Sam Altman

Mediocre founders spend a lot of time talking about grand plans, but they never quite make a decision.

— Sam Altman

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

— Sam Altman

What being a founder means, is signing up for this years long grind on execution - and you can't outsource this.

— 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

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

— 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

You're saying no ninety-seven times out of a hundred, and most founders find they have to make a very conscious effort to…

— 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

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

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

... for the top twenty most valuable YC companies, all of them have at least two founders.

— Sam Altman

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

— 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

Every thing at a startup gets modeled after the founders. Whatever the founders do becomes the culture.

— Sam Altman

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

— Sam Altman

The best founders work on things that seem small but they move really quickly. They get things done really quickly.

— Sam Altman

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

— Sam Altman

I think the best thing you can do is be aware that as a first time founder you are likely to be…

— Sam Altman

In YC experience, 2 or 3 co-founders seems to be about perfect.

— Sam Altman

If you look at successful pivots, they almost always are a pivot into something that the founder wanted. Not a random made…

— Sam Altman

Many of the best YC companies have had phenomenally small number of employees for their first year, sometimes none besides the founders.

— Sam Altman

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

— Sam Altman

Every first time founder waits too long, everyone hopes that an employee will turn around. But the right answer is to fire…

— Sam Altman

Two other things that we hear again and again from our founders, they wish they had done earlier, and that is... simply…

— Sam Altman

Really dig into projects people have worked on and call references; that is another thing that first time founders like to skip.

— Sam Altman