Altman's Quotes: top 100 famous quotes about Altman's

Altman's Quotes & Sayings

Happy to read and share the best inspirational Altman's quotes, sayings and quotations on Wise Famous Quotes.

If a company is profitable, the founder is in control. If it's not, investors are in control. — Sam Altman

There's no way I know, to get through the pain of a startup without belief that the mission really matters. — Sam Altman

When it comes to starting startups, in many ways, it's easier to start a hard startup than an easy startup. — Sam Altman

What's a cult? It just means not enough people to make a minority. — Robert Altman

If someone is getting every decision wrong, that's when you need to act, and at that point it'll be painfully aware to everyone. — Sam Altman

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

The Fed is the major U.S. firefighter. It's not the Treasury. It's not the Congress. We certainly saw that vividly in 2008. — Roger Altman

I've had it-the agencies, the winking, the networks, the ratings. Anyone who thinks TV is an art medium is crazy-it's an advertising medium. — Robert Altman

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. — Sam Altman

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

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. — Sam Altman

The most important thing is that there is clear reporting structure and everyone knows what it is. — Sam Altman

So I moved to Europe and only came back when directors like Robert Altman would call me after they'd seen my work in Full Metal Jacket. — Vincent D'Onofrio

Cheap natural gas is a big stimulus to petrochemical production and a meaningful one for all U.S. manufacturing. — Roger Altman

I prefer to invest in a company that's going after a small but rapidly growing market than a big but slow growing one. — Sam Altman

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. — Sam Altman

The way you get deals done and the way you get good terms, is to have a competitive situation. — Sam Altman

There is a power within and without. If you ask, it answers. It's just a matter of being calm and wise and listening. It takes years. — John Altman

I loved Robert Altman, so gentle yet naughty! And Julian Fellowes writes so beautifully. — Maggie Smith

I myself used to believe ideas didn't matter that much, but I'm very sure that's wrong now. — Sam Altman

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

Some day everyone will find out everyone else's comp, if it's all over the place, it will be a complete meltdown disaster — Sam Altman

So it's worth some real up front time to think through the long term value and the defensibility of the business. — Sam Altman

It's all just one film to me. Just different chapters. — Robert Altman

You're either not hiring at all or it's probably your single biggest block of time. — Sam Altman

So always keep momentum, it's this prime directive for managing a startup. — Sam Altman

By the way, that's my number one piece of advice if you're going to join a startup: pick a rocket ship. — Sam Altman

I don't think screenplay writing is the same as writing - I mean, I think it's blueprinting. — Robert Altman

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

You think you have this great idea that everyone's going to come join, but that's not how it works. — Sam Altman

We pretty much won't fund a company now where the founders don't have vested equity because it's just that hard to do. — Sam Altman

It's better to have a few users love your product than for a lot of users to sort of like it. — Sam Altman

Before 20 or 25 employees, most companies are structured with everyone reporting to the founder. It's totally flat. — Sam Altman

It's really easy to get PR with no results & it actually feels like you're really actually cool, but in a year you'll still have nothing. — Sam Altman

In YC's case, the number one cause of early death for startups is cofounder blowups. — Sam Altman

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

If you have a startup that's keeping it up at night because you think it's so great, then you should do that. — Sam Altman

It's easy to say, 'I'm going to build something that already exists,' but it's difficult to clearly and succinctly describe something new. — Sam Altman

You also really want to take the time to think about how the market is going to evolve.You need a market that's going to be big in 10 years. — Sam Altman

Fire fast when it's not working. It's better for the company, it's also better for the employee. — Sam Altman

You can think about that for everyone you hire: will I bet the future of this company on this single hire? And that's a tough bar. — Sam Altman

Whether or not money can buy happiness, it can buy freedom, and that's a big deal. Also, lack of money is very stressful. — Sam Altman

If someone is choosing between joining McKinsey or your startup it's very unlikely they're going to work out at the startup. — Sam Altman

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

Someday, you need to build a business that's difficult to replicate. This is an important part of a good idea. — Sam Altman

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

Russia's oil fields are mature and require capital and Western technology even to keep production flat. — Roger Altman

We talk to a team, they've gotten new things done, that's the best predictor we have that a company will go on to be successful. — Sam Altman

If it takes more than a sentence to explain what you are doing, it's almost always a sign that what you are doing is too complicated. — Sam Altman

Whatever the founder cares about, whatever the founders think are the key goals, that's going to be what the whole company focusses on. — Sam Altman

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

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

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

I love fishing. You put that line in the water and you don't know what's on the other end. Your imagination is under there. — Robert Altman

In general, it's best if you're building something that you yourself need. — Sam Altman

Startups are not the best choice for work-life balance, and that's sort of just the sad reality. — Sam Altman

You can have a startup and one other thing, you can have a family, but you probably can't have many other hobbies. — Sam Altman

Don't hire for the sake of hiring. Hire because there is no other way to do what you want to do. — Sam Altman

You want to sound crazy, but you want to actually be right. — Sam Altman

I don't think there's a more battle-hardened veteran anywhere than Larry Summers. — Roger Altman

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

If you ask a founder how their company is doing, they always say, 'Oh it's great. We're totally crushing it,' and that's almost never true. — Sam Altman

It was from them that I learned that hard work in stable surroundings could yield rewards, even if only in infinitesimally small increments. — Sidney Altman

If you compromise in the first five, ten hires it might kill the company. — Sam Altman

If you wanted to build an Internet startup in 2005, you had to buy your own servers and hire someone to manage it. Now, that's unheard of. — Sam Altman

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

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. — Sam Altman

The biggest part of Loopt is about discovering the world around you, never replacing a social experience - only adding to it. — Sam Altman

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

Keep salaries low and equity high. Keep the organization as flat as you can. — Sam Altman

You can win with the best product, the best price, or the best experience. — Sam Altman

As you grow, it feels hopelessly corporate but it really is worth putting in place these compensation bands. — Sam Altman

If you go to a paintball subreddit, paintball companies can advertise to you. — Sam Altman

That culture of frugality and discipline is really important for the Y Combinator mindset. — Sam Altman

Loopt isn't a service that keeps you locked in, staring at your screen. — Sam Altman

It's become popular in recent years to say that the idea doesn't matter. — Sam Altman

Just put a little pin in your mind: when you cross 50 employees, there are a new set of HR rules that you have to comply with. — Sam Altman

The way to really scale a venture firm is with software. — Sam Altman

The Oscar for the films, it'd be nice. But I don't make those kind of films, and I don't think that will ever happen. — Robert Altman

You want to continue to be run by great products, not process for it's own sake. — Sam Altman

I care much more about the growth rate of the market than it's current size and I also care if there's any reason it's going to top out. — Sam Altman

Jazz has endured because it doesn't have a beginning or an ending. It's a moment. — Robert Altman

At YC we have this public phrase, and it's relentlessly resourceful. — Sam Altman

I should mention that while I was growing up, Einstein was presented as a worthy role model for a young boy who was good at his studies. — Sidney Altman

The hard part is that this is a very fine line. There's right on one side of it, and crazy on the other. — Sam Altman

You have to be decisive. Indecisiveness is a startup killer. — Sam Altman

The track record for founders that don't already know each other is really bad. — Sam Altman

Most good founders that I know at any given time have a set of small overarching goals for the company that everybody in the company knows. — Sam Altman

We hear again and again from founders, that they wish they had waited to start a startup until they came up with an idea they really loved. — Sam Altman

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. — Sam Altman

AI will probably most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there'll be great companies. — Sam Altman

Execution gets divided into two key questions: 1) can you figure out what to do and 2) can you get it done. — Sam Altman

You have to let your team get all the credit for all the good stuff that happens, and you take responsibility for the bad stuff. — Sam Altman

The Loopt mobile app is all about giving you the latest local deals and insider tips. — Sam Altman

You'll get more support on a hard, important, project than a derivative one. — Sam Altman

Obsess about the quality of the product. — Sam Altman

The thing about Y Combinator that's cool is that most companies won't happen if we don't fund them. — Sam Altman

You need this sort of a tailwind to make a startup successful. — Sam Altman

M&A negotiations feel really fun. This is one of the biggest killers of companies, is they entertain acquisition conversations. — Sam Altman

I have never made a movie that's attracted a 14-year-old boy. — Robert Altman