The five things Sam Altman looks for in a founder

In the clip below, Sam Altman talks through the five things he believes makes really great founders special and what he would look for in a cofounder.

#1: “I always figure it out” and “I never give up”

“There are two phrases that come to mind if I were trying to pick what our top 10 most successful founders would have said about themselves when we were interviewing them at YC: ‘I always figure it out’ and ‘I never give up’… Everyone thinks that really matters is how smart they are, or their domain expertise, or their network… But it really is this kind of personality trait. People have different phrases for it: determination, relentlessly resourceful is one that Paul Graham uses. But that spirit is the most important factor, I think, in successful founders.”

#2 Focus, self-belief, personal connections

“There are three things that we have observed about how successful founders get things done: Focus, self-belief, and personal connections… And in fact, if I were looking for a cofounder, I would look for that. Does this person have a relentless focus? Are they just going to get this one thing done and keep their blinders on and not get distracted by shiny objects along the way? Do they actually believe that this is possible? Because momentum is this crazily self-fulfilling prophecy. Can they form the personal connections that it takes to be successful? Will they be able to recruit and retain a world-class team? Will they be able to sell their product? Will they be able to raise money? Will they be able to talk to the press? The ability to form these personal connections is super important.”

#3 Clear vision, thought, and communication

“Almost all of the best startups that we have ever been involved with, from the very first time we met those founders, they were able to very concisely and clearly communicate what they were doing in ~25 words. And I don’t know why this is so important—maybe that you need to spread the message. But I can certainly say that founders who aren’t good at this don’t really go on to be successful… You can prove this to yourself quickly by looking at the founders of really successful companies. They’re all good at this. So I think this is an area to invest in and get better at.”

#4 Ability to attract people to work on the company

“Recruiting that 20th employee is really hard. You need an exciting vision and you need to be good at communication and personal relationships.

#5 Ability to get a huge amount of work done themselves

“The best founders just get a huge amount of work done themselves. So in the early days especially, you kind of have to do everything and there’s a lot to do. And so having focus and maniacal productivity is really important.”

Full video: Waterloo Engineering “Sam Altman Startup School” (Jul 2017)

P.S. We’ve put together a YouTube playlist with every Sam Altman insight we’ve ever shared. You can watch it here: "Best startup advice from Sam Altman"