Top 331 Quotes & Sayings by Sam Altman

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.'

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

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

Tech companies tend to do tech best.

A lot of people don't love their bank.

I believe in the future, and to be a good investor, you have to believe in the future.

Virgin America flyers tend to be more likely to be using a mobile device and tapping social networks - even at 35,000 feet.

You shouldn't try to manufacture progress.

Whoever Boost works with, Sprint will work with. And whoever Sprint works with, Verizon and AT&T will as well.

Many of the companies in the mobile location space are trying to figure out different ways to tie what they're doing to commerce.

The start-ups that do well are the ones that are working all the time.

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

Everyone is looking for the hack, the secret to success without hard work.

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

Very ambitious startups often take a long time to work - or sometimes they take a very long time to look ambitious.

I don't invest in companies where my mental model is that they need to get themselves acquired in the next few years - or ever.

It's so important for startups to get their culture right at the start. They need to feel unique and that they are on their own important mission in the world.

I think you can say a lot of evil behavior by companies is short-term optimization.

I grew up with a computer, and many of my friends were people I met online.

One of the things we urge Y-Combinator companies to do is to have profitability in grasp. If you need to get profitable before your A round of money, you ought to be able to do that.

With Loopt Star, consumers get to tap interactive rewards wherever they may be.

The market for local advertising is in the billions.

I think the mistake people make most often when they invest in other kinds of startups is they say, 'This is totally different.' And so the things that matter, like making a product that people desperately want, like talking to customers, they throw this out the window. That is a recipe for heartache and tears.

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.

Don't let yourself make excuses for not doing the things you want to do.

Move fast. Speed is one of your main advantages over large competitors.

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

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.

All throughout my life I have been deeply immersed in startups, either because I was running one or investing in them or helping them.

Anonymity breeds meanness.

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.

You really want a company full of missionaries, not mercenaries.

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

Check-ins are cool, but kind of a pain.

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.

The nice thing about Reddit is, we don't have to sell your data or build a profile of you or do stuff that makes people feel uncomfortable.

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

Location is the sole difference between mobile and traditional Web.

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.

Background updating is absolutely the future.

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

Traditional local advertising is not what retailers want. They want not just for you to see an ad - they want you to come into the store, to be a repeat customer and to spread the word.

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

I think extreme secrecy is a bad sign in all startups. Very few startups die because they tell you exactly how their technology works. On the long list of startup killers, that's pretty far down. Though on the list of entrepreneur fears, it's pretty high.

Generally, you want to raise capital either when you have to or when it's really easy. If the company desperately needs money, and they can't figure out any other way, then they need to raise money. Or if someone's offering you easy money on good terms, you should take it because you can use it for good things.

I get up late, have an espresso, and immediately start work. I try to get roughly caught up on email before I leave the house, then if I need to write anything or review a complex deal, I do that, and then I head to the office and work on my top few priorities for the day. I try to schedule my meetings in the afternoon.

People hate searching.

Being a public company is really terrible for most companies. I'd say Facebook and Google have done a pretty good job of standing up to the incredible quarterly pressure to hit numbers, but most companies - and I've observed a lot now - don't do a very good job of that.

Startups on the inside are always badly broken.

Seed investing is the status symbol of Silicon Valley. Most people don't want Ferraris, they want a winning seed investment.

Ideas are cheap and easy, and there are a lot of them.

People appreciate when you make an effort to speak their language.

Facebook and Instagram are spiritual brothers.

Do I think every culture will embrace location technology? Yes.

Asking what I'd do without Loopt is almost like asking what I would do if I didn't have a smartphone because the feature set has become the norm for me.

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

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.

I suppose if I didn't have Loopt, I'd have to, I don't know, pick up the phone and just start calling people, a lot more texting and certainly more Googling.

Sometimes people think Y Combinator has big ideas about themes. But really, we just fund the best startups.

I love working with really early stage startups where the outcome is still in doubt. Maybe they'll go on to greatness, or maybe they'll never get off the runway at all.