To Go 0 to 1, First Go -1 to 0
The Problem with the "Right Idea"
The myth of the “right idea” is one of the biggest traps for aspiring founders. People imagine startups begin with a lightning bolt of inspiration: the one perfect idea that changes everything. But that’s not how it works.
Ideas evolve. Airbnb didn’t start as a marketplace for lodging—it was a website to rent air ma... See more
The myth of the “right idea” is one of the biggest traps for aspiring founders. People imagine startups begin with a lightning bolt of inspiration: the one perfect idea that changes everything. But that’s not how it works.
Ideas evolve. Airbnb didn’t start as a marketplace for lodging—it was a website to rent air ma... See more
Why Pre-Founder?
What I Wish Someone Had Told Me
- Optimism, obsession, self-belief, raw horsepower and personal connections are how things get started.
- Cohesive teams, the right combination of calmness and urgency, and unreasonable commitment are how things get finished. Long-term orientation is in short supply; try not to worry about what people think in the short t
blog.samaltman.com • What I Wish Someone Had Told Me
The more you see, the more skeptical you become. Optimize for skepticism and curiosity. Having been a VC and invested as an angel in well over 100 companies, my inbox flows with ideas of all kinds from aspiring and repeat entrepreneurs. In the earlier days, I’d get excited by ideas especially the first time I saw them. But over time, I soon realize... See more
Take, for example, the ambition to “make your venture-backed startup profitable”: to develop, market, and distribute a product or service that’s never existed before, in a form that’s valuable and accessible enough for large numbers of people to want to pay you for it, in sufficient quantity that your revenue consistently exceeds your costs.
If you... See more
If you... See more