Sam Altman–President of Y Combinator– has put together a fantastic webpage called “The Startup Playbook”. Anyone who is thinking about starting a startup, or is simply interested in the process, should go check it out.
One piece of advice I particularly liked was:
“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. Even though the total amount of positive feeling is the same, it’s much easier to get more users than to go from like to love.”
This post really reminded me how important it is to build something people love–even if it loved by only a small audience. Focusing on quality first, then scaling to something larger is crucial.
Check out the original article here. It is truly a must read.
Did Sam’s page help your startup? Let us know your startup story in the comments!
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Update:
Revisiting this post in February 2026 is quite a ride. Sam is now famous worldwide as the cofounder of ChatGPT, a technology unimaginable when I started this website. Wow.
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