📘 The Startup Playbook
By Sam Altman Illustrated by Gregory Koberger
A guide distilling the most generalizable advice from Y Combinator on how to start a startup. The playbook is divided into four key sections: The Idea, The Team, The Product, and Execution.
🚀 Part I: The Idea
A great idea is the foundation, but execution matters more. However, starting with a good idea makes success much more likely.
- Clarity is Key: You must be able to explain your idea clearly and concisely. Complex ideas often signal muddled thinking.
- Build Something People Want: Ideally, you are the target user. If not, you must understand the target user extremely well.
- Growth & Market: Look for a market that is evolving or growing quickly. It is better to capture a large part of a small market than a small part of a large market.
- Testing: The best way to test an idea is to launch it or try to sell it immediately.
"It's much better to first make a product a small number of users love than a product that a large number of users like."
👥 Part II: A Great Team
Mediocre teams do not build great companies. The most important factor in a startup's success is the strength of the founders.
- Key Characteristics: Look for unstoppability, determination, resourcefulness, and intelligence.
- Co-founders: The best case is a good co-founder; the worst case is a bad co-founder. Being a solo founder is better than having a bad partner.
- Equity: Split equity near-equally among co-founders to prevent resentment and align incentives.
🛠️ Part III: A Great Product
This is the only thing all great companies have in common: they built a product users love.
- Feedback Loops: You must get very close to your users. Watch them use the product and iterate based on their feedback.
- The Cycle: Build -> Measure -> Learn. Keep this cycle as short as possible.
- Do Things That Don't Scale: Recruit users manually if you have to. Hand-hold your early customers to ensure they have a great experience.
📈 Part IV: Great Execution
Once you have a product, you must turn it into a great company. Execution is the process of creating value over a long period.
1. Growth
- Momentum: Growth solves all problems. Lack of growth leads to burnout and internal fighting.
- Focus: Pick a single growth metric and optimize the entire company around it.
- Transparency: Keep metrics visible to the whole company to maintain focus.
2. Focus & Intensity
- Prioritize: Identify the 2-3 most important things and ignore the rest.
- Speed: Making decisions and moving fast is a competitive advantage.
- Obsession: Great founders are often obsessed with their product and company.
3. Jobs of the CEO
- Set the vision and strategy.
- Evangelize the company (to investors, employees, and users).
- Hire and manage the team.
- Raise money and ensure the company doesn't run out of cash.
- Set the execution quality bar.
4. Hiring & Managing
- Don't Hire Too Soon: Hiring slows you down. Only hire when you are desperate.
- Quality over Experience: Value aptitude and "slope" (rate of improvement) over years of experience.
- No Jerks: Do not hire chronically negative people; they destroy culture.
5. Competitors & Fundraising
- Ignore Competitors: 99% of startups die from suicide (internal problems), not murder (competitors).
- Fundraising: Raise money when you need it or when it is available on good terms, but do not let it solve your problems.
Summary generated based on content from playbook.samaltman.com.
