How founders can set themselves up for success, according to Sam Altman, the CEO of ChatGPT creator OpenAI.
If you are in the process of launching a startup or finding ways to scale up your business, Sam Altman has sound advice for you. He is the CEO of the firm behind the hottest technology of recent times — ChatGPT.
Sam Altman was among the several entrepreneurs, including Tesla boss Elon Musk, who founded ChatGPT creator OpenAI in 2015. Cut to 2022, they unveiled ChatGPT — a chatbot that has taken the world by storm with its ability to write essays and codes and answer just about any question within seconds.
Before OpenAI’s founding, Altman had delivered a lecture at Stanford University on how to create a successful startup. Here are the key takeaways, that many will find relevant even today.
Find an idea you are compelled to explore
Startup founders might have several ideas in their heads but they must pick the ones they feel most inclined to explore.
“What we hear again and again from founders is that they wish they had waited until they came up with an idea they really loved,” Altman told students at Stanford. “If you have several ideas, work on the one that you think about most often when you’re not trying to think about work.”
Altman said many entrepreneurs have this notion that their startup will only take two to three years, and after that, they can explore what they really love.
That almost never happens, he said, adding good startups can take up as many as 10 years.
Start with something simple
Altman suggested that founders focus on building products that people love — for starters, the ones that are simple to use. He cited Facebook, Google and the iPhone as examples.
“The first version of Facebook was almost comically simple,” he said. The first version of Google was just a webpage with a textbox and two buttons; but it returned the best results, and that’s why users loved it. The iPhone is far simpler to use then any smartphone that ever came before it, and it was the first one users really loved.”
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He said founders must begin with a “smaller subset of the problem” even if their future plans are very complex.
Be hands-on
Altman said during the lecture that good founders, in the early days of their enterprises, themselves take care of sales and customer support, instead of hiring people to do that.
“Great founders don’t put anyone between themselves and their users,” Altman said. “Its critical to get this loop embedded in the culture.”
Obtain feedback manually
Altman suggest that entrepreneurs go out into the world to look for their initial users.
He gave the example of Pinterest co-founder Ben Silbermann, who he said asked strangers at coffee shops to try out the product.
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“Don’t do things like buy Google ads in the early days, to get initial users,” Altman suggested. “You don’t need very many, you just need ones that will give you feedback everyday, and eventually love your product.”
