People Quotes by Sam Altman

You also want to fire people who a) create office politics, and b) who are persistently negative.

— Sam Altman

It really is true that you become an average of the people you spend the most time with.

— Sam Altman

For early employees you want people that have somewhat of a risk-taking attitude.

— Sam Altman

The best people know that they should join a rocketship.

— Sam Altman

No matter what you choose, build stuff and be around smart people.

— Sam Altman

You need unstoppable people. You want people that are just going to get it done.

— Sam Altman

Because it's one of these sort of connections between nodes- every pair of people adds communication overhead.

— Sam Altman

Firing people is one of the worst parts of running a company. Actually in my own experience, I think it is the…

— Sam Altman

A lot of people treat choosing their cofounder with even less importance than they put on hiring. Don't do this.

— Sam Altman

People that are really smart and that can learn new things can almost always find a role in the company as time…

— 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

A third advantage of mission oriented companies, is that people outside the company are more willing to help you.

— Sam Altman

There's at least a hundred times more people with great ideas than people that are willing to put in the effort to…

— Sam Altman

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

— Sam Altman

So if you want a culture where people work hard, & pay attention to detail, focus on the customer, are frugal: you…

— Sam Altman

If you can just learn to think about the market first, you will have a big leg up on most people starting…

— Sam Altman

You also want people who are maniacally determined and that is slightly different than having a risk tolerant attitude.

— Sam Altman

There are 3 things I look for when I hire people. Are they smart? Do they get things done? Do I want…

— Sam Altman

AirBnB spent 5 months interviewing their first employee, before they hired someone and in their first year, they only hired 2 people.

— 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

It's difficult to get large groups of people, to the extreme levels of focus and productivity that you need, for a startup…

— Sam Altman

The best source by far for hiring is people that you already know and people that other employees in the company already…

— 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

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

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

— Sam Altman

Because so few people make an actual long term commitment to what they're building, the ones that do have a huge advantage.

— Sam Altman

So you should always stay on top of people's vesting schedules.

— Sam Altman

The thirteenth search engine- and without all the features of a web portal, most people thought that was pointless.

— Sam Altman

To get the very best people- they have a lot of great options, and so it can easily take a year to…

— Sam Altman

These all sounded really bad, but they turned out to be good. If they had sounded really good, there would have been…

— Sam Altman

You need to have a culture where people have very high quality standards in everything the company does, but still move quickly.

— Sam Altman

Study the unusually successful people you know, and you will find them imbued with enthusiasm for their work which is contagious. Not…

— Sam Altman