Startup insights from Sam Altman, Brian Chesky, Bret Taylor, Suhail Doshi, and Marissa Mayer

Every Sunday, we send out 1 free insight + 4 new bonus insights for premium subscribers (upgrade to Premium for $5/mo here).

Today’s insights:

1. Sam Altman on the biggest mistake talented and hard-working people often make

2. Airbnb founder Brian Chesky explains why culture and brand are “two sides of the same coin”

3. Bret Taylor on why storytelling is so important for being a great founder

4. Mixpanel founder Suhail Doshi on one of the biggest mistakes people make with product analytics

5. The best advice Marissa Mayer received from Google CEO Eric Schmidt on being an executive

Sam Altman on the biggest mistake talented and hard-working people often make

“You should have a very high bar for doing anything but thinking about what to work on… Of course that doesn’t work all of the time. At some point, you actually have to go execute. But I often see people who I think are really talented, work super hard, and are super product, not spend any time thinking about what they’re going to work on.”

He believes that writing is the best tool for this:

“If I have a very hard problem or I’m a little confused about something, I still have not found anything better to do than sit down and make myself write it out… It is a super powerful thinking tool.”

Full video: David Perell “I interviewed the Creator of ChatGPT“ (Sep 2024)

Airbnb founder Brian Chesky explains why culture and brand are “two sides of the same coin”

“Culture is the principles and beliefs you have inside the company… And brand is really the promise outside the company.”

Brian believes that what happens inside the company eventually comes out, and the best way to make sure that your brand is aligned with your culture is to have a clear mission:

“Making sure that you know that mission and that mission comes through the company is probably the most important thing you can do for both culture and values.”

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