Hard Startups by Sam Altman
The most counterintuitive secret about startups is that it’s often easier to succeed with a hard startup than an easy one.
A hard startup requires a lot more money, time, coordination, or technological development than most startups. A good hard startup is one that will be valuable if it works (not all hard problems are worth solving!).
Nuclear fusion startups vs Instagrams
I remember when Instagram started to get really popular—it felt like you couldn’t go a day without hearing about another photo sharing startup.
That year, probably over 1,000 photo sharing startups were funded, while there were fewer than ten nuclear fusion startups in existence.
Become more Ambitious
Let yourself become more ambitious—figure out the most interesting version of where what you’re working on could go.
Then talk about that big vision and work relentlessly towards it, but always have a reasonable next step. You don’t want step one to be incorporating the company and step two to be going to Mars.
Easy startups are easy to start
Easy startups are easy to start but hard to make successful.
The most precious commodity in the startup ecosystem right now is talented people, and for the most part talented people want to work on something they find meaningful.
Few recruiting messages are as powerful (when true) as “the world needs this, it won’t happen any time soon if we don’t do it, and we are much less likely to succeed if you don’t join.”
Hard startup is a tailwind
An easy startup is a headwind; a hard startup is a tailwind.
If people care about your success because you seem committed to doing something significant, it’s a background force helping you with hiring, advice, partnerships, fundraising, etc.
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