9 Posts found for Author: Sam Altman

You should trade being short-term low-status for being long-term high-status, which most people seem unwilling to do. A common way this happens is by eventually being right about an important but deeply non-consensus bet. But there are lots of other ways–the key observation is that as long as you are right, being misunderstood by most people is a strength not a weakness. You and a … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Sam Altman | Subjects: Career, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

The Silicon Valley startup factory that birthed Airbnb and Dropbox has grown even more ambitious under its new leader.

Content: Thought Leader | Authors: Max Chafkin, Sam Altman | Source: Fast Company | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Good HR means three things: a clear management structure, a way for people to talk about workplace issues and concerns, and pathways for people to evolve in their careers. An important component of creating pathways is performance feedback. It can be light, but it should happen frequently. It helps a lot when people can regularly hear how they are doing–good or bad. It should also … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Sam Altman | Subjects: Human Resources, Management

Sam Altman interviews Jessica Livingston, co-founder of Y Combinator. Topics include the history of Y Combinator itself and some interesting anecdotes about AirBNB.

Content: Multimedia Content | Authors: Jessica Livingston, Sam Altman | Subject: Entrepreneurship

You should raise money when you need it or when it’s available on good terms. Be careful not to lose your sense of frugality or to start solving problems by throwing money at them. Not having enough money can be bad, but having too much money is almost always bad.

Content: Quotation | Author: Sam Altman | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Competitors are a startup ghost story. First-time founders think they are what kill 99% of startups. But 99% of startups die from suicide, not murder. Worry instead about all of your internal problems. If you fail, it will very likely be because you failed to make a great product and/or failed to make a great company.

99% of the time, you should ignore competitors. Especially ignore … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Sam Altman | Subjects: Competition, Entrepreneurship

Don’t compromise on the quality of people you hire. Everyone knows this, and yet everyone compromises on this at some point during a desperate need. Everyone goes on to regret it, and it sometimes almost kills the company. Good and bad people are both infectious, and if you start with mediocre people, the average does not usually trend up. […] Finally, fire quickly. Everyone knows … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Sam Altman | Subjects: Culture, Entrepreneurship, Management, Organizational Behavior

It’s easier to do something new and hard than something derivative and easy. People will want to help you and join you if it’s the former; they will not if it’s the latter.

Content: Quotation | Author: Sam Altman | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Innovation

We spend a lot of time advising startups. Though one-on-one advice will always be crucial, we thought it might help us scale Y Combinator if we could distill the most generalizable parts of this advice into a sort of playbook we could give YC and YC Fellowship companies.

Then we thought we should just give it to everyone.

This is meant for people new to the world … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Sam Altman | Subject: Entrepreneurship