Sam Altman People Quotations

A lot of people don't love their bank.

All companies that grow really big do so in only one way: people recommend the product or service to other people.

Set a clear, easy-to-understand vision for your company, and make it be a mission people believe in.

I grew up with a computer, and many of my friends were people I met online.

I believe whatever smart, ambitious people are working on will be the trend of the future. I do think that it's worth thinking critically about what the future will be.

I don't think people spend nearly enough time thinking about what they like and what they're good at.

I think the mistake people make most often when they invest in other kinds of startups is they say, 'This is totally different.' And so the things that matter, like making a product that people desperately want, like talking to customers, they throw this out the window. That is a recipe for heartache and tears.

People appreciate when you make an effort to speak their language.

People always make the mistake of calling an idea small or stupid because they don't understand how it's going to evolve.

Many founders hire just because it seems like a cool thing to do, and people always ask how many employees you have.

Sometimes people think Y Combinator has big ideas about themes. But really, we just fund the best startups.

Seed investing is the status symbol of Silicon Valley. Most people don't want Ferraris, they want a winning seed investment.

The way to build billion dollar companies is to first build something people love. There isn't really a shortcut there.

The nice thing about Reddit is, we don't have to sell your data or build a profile of you or do stuff that makes people feel uncomfortable.

There's this famous observation that I totally believe: Great startup ideas are the ones that lie in the intersection of the Venn diagram of 'is a good idea' and 'looks like a bad idea.' So you want most people to think it's a bad idea and thus not compete with you until you get giant. But for it to secretly be good.

If you look at people who have an iPhone or Android and are under 40 and are dissatisfied with their bank, it's actually quite a large market.

The crowd's a really powerful force on the Internet, and people finally understand how to harness that.

Study the unusually successful people you know, and you will find them imbued with enthusiasm for their work which is contagious. Not only are they themselves excited about what they are doing, but they also get you excited

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

There are 3 things I look for when I hire people. Are they smart? Do they get things done? Do I want to spend a lot of time around them?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

... 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.

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.

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

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

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

The best people know that they should join a rocketship.

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