Sam Altman famous quotes

05-12-2025

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

#Smart #People #Matter
In general don't start a startup you're not willing to work on for ten years.
-- Sam Altman

#Years #Willing
Obsess about the quality of the product.
-- Sam Altman

#Quality
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

#Fate #Miracle #Natural
The startups that do well are the ones that are working all the time.
-- Sam Altman

#Wells
Be suspicious of any work that is not building product or gettingÂ customers.
-- Sam Altman

#Building
You can win with the best product, the best price, or the best experience.
-- Sam Altman

#Winning #You Can Win
If you pivot, do it fully and with conviction. The worst thing is to try to do a bit of the old and the new-it's hard to kill your babies.
-- Sam Altman

#Baby #Trying #Conviction
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.
-- Sam Altman

#Two #Innovation #Three
Great execution is at least 10 times more important and a 100 times harder than a good ideaâ€¦
-- Sam Altman

#Ideas #Important #Execution
You need someone that behaves like James Bond more than you need someone that is an expert in some particular domain.
-- Sam Altman

#Experts #Needs #Domain
The best ideas often look terrible at the beginning the truly good ideas, don't seem like they're worth stealing.
-- Sam Altman

#Ideas #Looks #Stealing
One thing I tell startups all the time is that the best way to grow is to make their product better.
-- Sam Altman

#Way #Grows
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
-- Sam Altman

#Successful #People #Enthusiasm
Startups are very hard no matter what you do; you may as well go after a big opportunity.
-- Sam Altman

#Opportunity #May #Matter
Most things are not as risky as they seem.
-- Sam Altman
Starting a business is like riding a wave between life and death. If you can hang on long enough, you're bound to succeed
-- Sam Altman

#Life And Death #Long #Succeed
As long as you keep doing the right thing and have the best product, you can beat the bigger company.
-- Sam Altman

#Long #Beats #Bigger
Every company has a rocky beginning.
-- Sam Altman

#Company
Everyone starting a startup for the first time is scared, and everyone feels like a bit of an imposter.
-- Sam Altman

#Firsts #Scared #Starting
Share results (financial and key metrics) with the company every month.
-- Sam Altman

#Keys #Metrics #Months
Move fast. Speed is one of your main advantages over large companies.
-- Sam Altman

#Moving #Speed #Advantage
Remember that you are more likely to die because you execute badly than get crushed by a competitor.
-- Sam Altman

#Remember #Crushed #Competitors
No growth hack, brilliant marketing idea, or sales team can save you long term if you don't have a sufficiently good product.
-- Sam Altman

#Team #Ideas #Long
Keep salaries low and equity high. Keep the organization as flat as you can.
-- Sam Altman

#Organization #Salary #Lows
Growth solves (nearly) all problems
-- Sam Altman

#Growth #Problem #Solve
Be suspicious of any work that is not building product or getting customers. It's easy to get sucked into an infrastructure rewrite death spiral.
-- Sam Altman

#Easy #Building #Infrastructure
It's better to have a few users love your product than for a lot of users to sort of like it.
-- Sam Altman

#Love You #Users

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