Sam Altman
Maybe I am a bit unusual here, but I am less stressed if I have my phone with me. Because I can spend like an hour in the morning taking care of everything instead of I sit there and wonder what I missed or wonder what's happening. So it's way less stressful for me to just answer my phone.Collection: Morning
The thing about Y Combinator that's cool is that most companies won't happen if we don't fund them.Collection: Cool
I wouldn't call Loopt a failure. It didn't turn out like I wanted, for sure, but it was fun, I learned a lot, and I made enough money to start investing, which led me to my current job. I don't regret it at all.Collection: Failure
Whether or not money can buy happiness, it can buy freedom, and that's a big deal. Also, lack of money is very stressful.Collection: Money
Making money is often more fun than spending it, though I personally have never regretted money I've spent on friends, new experiences, saving time, travel, and causes I believe in.Collection: Travel
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.Collection: Future
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.Collection: Famous
AI will probably most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there'll be great companies.Collection: Great
Communication services need interoperability to succeed - and Loopt is the first such service since SMS that is available across all major U.S. wireless carriers.Collection: Communication
The hard part of running a business is that there are a hundred things that you could be doing, and only five of those actually matter, and only one of them matters more than all of the rest of them combined. So figuring out there is a critical path thing to focus on and ignoring everything else is really important.Collection: Business
Intelligence is usually easy to tell in a 10-minute conversation. Determination is harder.Collection: Intelligence
Everyone is looking for the hack, the secret to success without hard work.Collection: Success
Technology magnifies differences, and it's been replacing or obviating jobs for a long time. But what happens as that case accelerates? I'm not one of these doomsayers who says, 'There will be no jobs.'Collection: Technology
Never put your family, friends, or significant other low on your priority list. Prefer a handful of truly close friends to a hundred acquaintances.Collection: Family
Great execution is at least 10 times more important and a 100 times harder than a good idea.Collection: Ideas
No matter what you choose, build stuff and be around smart people.Collection: Smart
One thing that founders forget is that after they hire employees, they have to retain them.Collection: Team
Aim to be the best in the world at whatever you do professionally. Even if you miss, you'll probably end up in a pretty good place.Collection: Missing
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?Collection: Smart
You can create value with breakthrough innovation, incremental refinement, or complex coordination. Great companies often do two of these. The very best companies do all three.Collection: Two
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 excitedCollection: Successful
You only get points when you make something the market wants. So if you work really hard on the wrong things, no one will care.Collection: Care
In general, it's best if you're building something that you yourself need.Collection: Needs
Execution gets divided into two key questions: 1) can you figure out what to do and 2) can you get it done.Collection: Keys
Obsess about the quality of the product.Collection: Quality
Keep salaries low and equity high. Keep the organization as flat as you can.Collection: Organization
It really is true that you become an average of the people you spend the most time with.Collection: Average
You also want to fire people who a) create office politics, and b) who are persistently negative.Collection: Team
The best people know that they should join a rocketship.Collection: Team
In general don't start a startup you're not willing to work on for ten years.Collection: Years
No growth hack, brilliant marketing idea, or sales team can save you long term if you don't have a sufficiently good product.Collection: Team
As long as you keep doing the right thing and have the best product, you can beat the bigger company.Collection: Long
Someday, you need to build a business that's difficult to replicate. This is an important part of a good idea.Collection: Ideas
More important than starting any startup, is getting to know a lot of potential co-founders.Collection: Important
Most things are not as risky as they seem.Collection: Seems
If someone is difficult to talk to, if someone cannot communicate clearly, it's a real problem in terms of their likelihood to work out.Collection: Team
Startups are very hard no matter what you do; you may as well go after a big opportunity.Collection: Opportunity
If you don't need it yourself, and you're building something that someone else needs, realize you're at a big disadvantage.Collection: Needs
Mediocre founders spend a lot of time talking about grand plans, but they never quite make a decision.Collection: Talking
One thing that founders always underestimate is how hard it is to recruit.Collection: Team
Be suspicious of any work that is not building product or getting customers.Collection: Building
I prefer to invest in a company that's going after a small but rapidly growing market than a big but slow growing one.Collection: Growing
You have to be decisive. Indecisiveness is a startup killer.Collection: Killers
Remember that you are more likely to die because you execute badly than get crushed by a competitor.Collection: Remember
The company just needs to see you as like this maniacal execution machine.Collection: Needs
A small communication breakdown is enough for everyone to be working on slightly different things. And then you loose focus.Collection: Communication
To get the very best people- they have a lot of great options, and so it can easily take a year to recruit someone.Collection: Team
If you look at successful pivots, they almost always are a pivot into something that the founder wanted. Not a random made up idea.Collection: Successful
The best source by far for hiring is people that you already know and people that other employees in the company already know.Collection: Team
1 of the hardest parts about being a founder, is that there are a 100 important things competing for your attention each day.Collection: Important