The cost of getting an early hire wrong is really high. Sam Altman More Quotes by Sam Altman More Quotes From Sam Altman The track record for founders that don't already know each other is really bad. Sam Altman recordstrackteam If you're not in college and you don't know a cofounder, the next best thing I think is to go work at an interesting company. Sam Altman teamcollegethinking It's better to have no cofounder than to have a bad cofounder, but it's still bad to be a solo founder. Sam Altman founderssoloteam Later, you should learn to hire fast and scale up the company, but in the early days the goal should be not to hire. Not to hire. Sam Altman teamgoalshould At the beginning, you should only hire when you have a desperate need to. Sam Altman desperateteamneeds Many of the best YC companies have had phenomenally small number of employees for their first year, sometimes none besides the founders. Sam Altman small-numbersteamyears ... you want to be proud of how much you can get done with a small numbers of employees. Sam Altman small-numbersteamdone ... but actually it sucks to have a lot of employees, and you should be proud of how few employees you have. Sam Altman proudteamshould In addition to relentlessly resourceful, you want a tough and a calm cofounder. Sam Altman toughteamwant You really want to know your cofounders for a while, ideally years. Sam Altman teamwantyears At YC we have this public phrase, and it's relentlessly resourceful. Sam Altman resourcefulphrasesteam ... We probably funded a rate of something like one out of ten solo teams. Sam Altman ratesoloteam ... for the top twenty most valuable YC companies, all of them have at least two founders. Sam Altman teamtwentiestwo In YC experience, 2 or 3 co-founders seems to be about perfect. Sam Altman foundersteamperfect It's easy to move fast or be obsessed with quality, but the trick is you have to do both at a startup. Sam Altman qualityeasymoving You need to have a culture where people have very high quality standards in everything the company does, but still move quickly. Sam Altman qualitypeoplemoving You have to be intense. This only comes from the CEO, this only comes from the founders. Sam Altman ceofoundersintense You have to be decisive. Indecisiveness is a startup killer. Sam Altman indecisivenesskillers You can have a startup and one other thing, you can have a family, but you probably can't have many other things. Sam Altman hobbies The other piece besides focus for execution is intensity. Startups only work at a fairly intense level. Sam Altman pieceslevelsfocus
