When it comes to starting startups, in many ways, it's easier to start a hard startup than an easy startup. — Sam Altman Customer Copy Share Image
You have to let your team get all the credit for all the good stuff that happens, and you take responsibility for… — Sam Altman Bad stuff Copy Share Image
I myself used to believe ideas didn't matter that much, but I'm very sure that's wrong now. — Sam Altman Believe Copy Share Image
So always keep momentum, it's this prime directive for managing a startup. — Sam Altman Entrepreneurship Copy Share Image
It takes years and years, usually a decade, to create a great startup. — Sam Altman Decades Copy Share Image
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 Business Copy Share Image
Developing a personal connection with anyone you're trying to do a big deal with is really important. — Sam Altman Big deal Copy Share Image
A winning team feels good and keeps winning. A team that hasn't won in a while gets demotivated and keeps losing. — Sam Altman Feel good Copy Share Image
One thing that often disrupts momentum and really shouldn't is competitors. — Sam Altman Competitors Copy Share Image
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 Attention Copy Share Image
If you ever take your foot off the gas pedal, things will spiral out of control, snowball downwards. — Sam Altman Fast Copy Share Image
Another way of looking at this, is that the best companies are almost always mission oriented. — Sam Altman Another way Copy Share Image
The way to have a company that executes well is you have to execute well yourself. — Sam Altman Business Copy Share Image
Before product/market fit, your only job that matters is to build a great product. — Sam Altman Build Copy Share Image
You should always know how you're doing against your metrics. You should always have a weekly review meeting every week. — Sam Altman Know how Copy Share Image
Investors will sort of like write the check and then, despite a lot of promises, don't usually do that much; sometimes they… — Sam Altman Checks Copy Share Image
The other piece besides focus for execution is intensity. Startups only work at a fairly intense level. — Sam Altman Customer Copy Share Image
The natural state of a start-up is to die; most start-ups require multiple miracles in their early days to escape this fate. — Sam Altman Dies Copy Share Image
Because it's one of these sort of connections between nodes- every pair of people adds communication overhead. — Sam Altman Add Copy Share Image
There's no way I know, to get through the pain of a startup without belief that the mission really matters. — Sam Altman Belief Copy Share Image
A small communication breakdown is enough for everyone to be working on slightly different things. And then you loose focus. — Sam Altman Breakdown Copy Share Image
You should think about for the next 10 years, you're going to be giving out 3-5% of the company every year. — Sam Altman Business Copy Share Image
One of the biggest advantages that start ups have is execution speed and you have to have this relentless operating rhythm. — Sam Altman Advantage Copy Share Image
The single word that matters most I think to keep the company productive as it grows is alignment. — Sam Altman Alignment Copy Share Image
In general, it's best if you're building something that you yourself need. — Sam Altman Building Copy Share Image
... how much time you should be spending on hiring? The answer is 0 or 25 percent. — Sam Altman Answers Copy Share Image
You don't get to make their decisions but you do get to choose the decision makers. — Sam Altman Decision Copy Share Image
You can win with the best product, the best price, or the best experience. — Sam Altman Best experiences Copy Share Image
Aim to be the best in the world at whatever you do professionally. Even if you miss, you'll probably end up in… — Sam Altman Aim Copy Share Image
You need unstoppable people. You want people that are just going to get it done. — Sam Altman Done Copy Share Image
Every first time founder waits too long, everyone hopes that an employee will turn around. But the right answer is to fire… — Sam Altman Answers Copy Share Image
Founders are usually very stingy with equity to employees and very generous with equity to investors. I think this is totally backwards. — Sam Altman Backwards Copy Share Image
The best source by far for hiring is people that you already know and people that other employees in the company already… — Sam Altman Business Copy Share Image
Most investors are obsessed with the market size today and they don't think about how the market is going to evolve. — Sam Altman Customer Copy Share Image
... and you can only have 2 or 3 things everyday, because everything else will just come at you; you know fires in a day. — Sam Altman Everyday Copy Share Image
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 Bigs Copy Share Image
If you look at successful pivots, they almost always are a pivot into something that the founder wanted. Not a random made… — Sam Altman Customer Copy Share Image
