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playbook.samaltman.com

1 resource from playbook.samaltman.com we point founders to, and the questions each answers.

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Altman's condensed operating manual for founders, including sharp guidance on focus, spending your time on what only you can do, and prioritization. Primary source, endlessly re-read.

Startup Playbook

From playbook.samaltman.com by Sam Altman long

  • A founder's job narrows to a few things: set the vision, hire well, and don't run out of money
  • Focus and intensity beat breadth, do a few things extremely well
  • Momentum and growth are the founder's core responsibilities
  • Protect your time for the highest-leverage work only you can do
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Answers I want to start a startup but I don't have an idea. Where do I even begin? What is founder-market fit and how do I know if I have it? How do I decide which features to cut from v1? How do I get my first users for the MVP? How do I hire good engineers in India when everyone's competing for the same talent? What equity should I offer a technical co-founder vs. an early engineer? How often should an early-stage startup ship? Isn't doing things that don't scale a waste of time, shouldn't I automate from day one? How do I spend my time on the things only I, the founder, can do? What's a realistic time-management system for a founder with zero spare hours? How much should I actually delegate before I can afford a team? How does a solo founder do everything without drowning? How do I evaluate whether an idea is big enough to be worth years of my life? Do I even have a real problem, or just a solution I'm attached to? Everyone says my market is too niche to be venture-scale. When are they right, and when are they wrong? I have deep experience but only as an employee, never a founder. Does that still count as founder-market fit? How specific should my founder-market fit be? Is 'I love fintech' enough? I'm a student with no work experience. Can I have founder-market fit at all, or should I wait? I keep polishing the design and refactoring instead of shipping. How do I know I'm gold-plating my MVP versus doing necessary work? How do I hire a developer without a warm network or startup connections? What is a sane way to prioritise between fixing bugs, paying customer promises, and building the exciting new thing? My co-founder wants a big coordinated launch, I want to just ship quietly and iterate. Who's right?
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