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Sam Altman explains why founders should start the hard company now

November 27, 2023

“Easy companies are boring. It’s hard to get the 10th or 20th employee to join. It's very hard to differentiate. There are hundreds of shots on goal for every good idea. And people don't care that much.”

Altman explains that people want to help founders on a mission.

“If you are starting a nuclear fusion company, even if the odds are against you, people really want to help you. You have this tailwind. People want to join you in the quest. And that’s a super valuable thing - especially in a time when there's so much clutter and so much noise.”

Founders often think they need to start an easy company so that they can make $100M in three years and then go do the thing they actually want. But Altman advises against this.

“I think a lot of those people, if they would relax that very short time constraint, would go on to make a successful software company and then could do something else. But this thing of, ‘I got to do this thing very quickly to solve this problem, and then I'm going to go start a company, that seems to usually not work.’”