These are my notes for Lecture 2 of Sam Altman’s Startup class. The course, organized by Sam Altman, the President of YCombinator, has the express goal of teaching “everything we know about how to start a startup, for free, from some of the world experts.” You can also see my notes for the intro and Lecture 1.
OK. So whereas Lecture 1 focused on the five key attributes of a great startup and zeroed in on what makes for a good startup idea, Lecture 2 is focused on how to build a great team. The second half of the lecture then shifts away from one’s team and instead talks about your responsibilities as a Founder in terms of what you need to execute well on in order to succeed.
The team part of the lecture follows the following outline:
- CoFounders: Why they’re important, what to look for, and how to find them
- Why to NOT Hire: Burn rate, speed of execution, delicacy of the beginning
- Recruiting the best talent: What it takes to get the best
- Talent Retention: or, Don’t F*ck it Up
- Firing Fast:: or, Don’t let others F*ck it Up
