Sam Altman Quotes

If you're the CEO of a publicly traded company, you're worried about quarterly returns.

You have to have in mind what you want when you go public. It's not just an end in and of itself. Suddenly, you have investors to satisfy. Investors who want - who demand - a return.

I don't want to take a company public and not have it do extremely well and fail the public shareholder.

I wish we could be private with Tesla. It actually makes us less efficient to be a public company.

The good parts about being a public company are increased discipline, increased execution and increased transparency to make sure that you are really building a company for a hundred years.

Clearly as you move to being a public company, probably even more than growth, there is a huge value based on predictability.

Being a public company certainly doesn't stop you from taking a really long-term time horizon, but it does make it more difficult.

Whether you stay private or go public, after all is said and done, a CEO's job is to create lasting shareholder value.

Good shareholder activists have incredible interest in the company because they own a lot of it.

Every public company depends to some extent on the trust of its investors.

I think most CEOs think their stock is undervalued, probably.

When you face the shareholders, then you can feel the heat is on you. For 20 years I got to answer to my shareholders. It's not easy.

I met with several public company CEOs to learn about their experiences of going public and listened to as many earnings calls as I possibly could.

If you're going to run a public company, be absolutely certain of what the parameters are, what the clarity is, that you can explain it to yourselves and explain it externally.

The day I was announced as CEO, I think the stock dropped another 20%.

I have never seen Jeff Bezos, Marc Benioff, or Reed Hastings complain about being public. Nor have they ever argued that being public prevented them from doing things with a long-term focus.

Our laws demand that a corporation have a fiduciary responsibility with shareholders to maximize profits. They are legally required to make as much money as possible, any way possible within 'the law.'

I would rather be responsible and accountable and help to reward the public shareholders going ahead.

I have almost no interest in quarterly reports. Running a business or investing in a business based on quarterly earnings doesn't make any sense at all to me.

Banks are run by executives, and executives protect themselves, and that does not always mean that banks are going to behave rationally.

I'm going to continue doing my thing and work my butt off to add value for shareholders and as long as they and the board see fit to keep me in this role, I feel enormously privileged to serve.

If a company is not doing well, it doesn't necessarily mean that it is not a good company.

Regarding our links with the Russian government, Severstal is a private company with no government participation. We are answerable to our shareholders.

It's a special thing to be a public company.

Being a CEO still means sitting across the table from big institutional investors and showing your leadership and having them believe in you.