Sam Altman Quotes

Company culture is my number one priority. It's more important than the team, the product, the business model, or the investors. All of those things can be fixed and made better over time. But culture has to be established on Day 1.

It seems like those of us who run a business can't go five minutes without encountering the term "company culture." The phrase is always uttered with extreme adoration, yet the very concept seems as nebulous as it is elusive.

Since most startups operate at a break-neck pace, with a concept to prove or a product to launch within a rapidly shortening runway of financing, company culture often gets shoved aside. This is a big, big mistake: Nobody serious about their business should put culture in the corner.

Most of the time, when you need something at a company, you make it. If you want to sell a product, you create it. If you need a head of marketing, you hire one. If you want to create a great company culture, what do you do? The lack of a clear answer on this is why I believe most companies don't have a great culture.

Our culture is the foundation for our company.

I think the company that has the clearest set of values is Amazon. That company knows what it is. It may be that it's not your cup of tea, but every single person at that company knows what the Amazon values are.

No one gave me a recipe for how to create company culture. I wish I had had one.

Startups need to focus on building a foundation for their company culture early, and then they need to revisit it often. Every time a hire is made, a feature is launched, a Facebook status is updated, a press interview is given, a round of financing is raised, or a meeting is held, culture should be part of the decision-making process.

I love being part of a company, and telling a story.

I have a foundational belief that business results start with culture and your people.

Businesses often forget about the culture, and ultimately, they suffer for it because you can't deliver good service from unhappy employees.

Developing a good, healthy culture is extremely important at a startup. Culture reflects the essence of a startup's operation because it directly affects the success of a company's hiring practices and overall strategy.

I want Yahoo to be the absolute best place to work, to have a fantastic culture.

The right people don't care about a corner office - they care about the culture, if you're mission-driven, what you're going to do to make the world a better place.

Most companies overlook the most basic of all training functions: the onboarding of new employees into their corporate culture.

I think the most important thing is not only do you want to build a roster, but you also want to establish a culture within any given organization.

Since the earliest days of Eventbrite, we've made our people core to our mission. Our culture is an ever-evolving manifestation of those on our team. As people join, we believe in earning their trust by demonstrating we'll embrace them and help them grow.

Culture used to be viewed as the 'touchy-feely' side of business, but that's no longer the case. If you don't have a defined culture behind you, then you aren't going to be effective at executing your strategy.

When a culture is broken, the cracks show - morale is weakened, but so is profit and performance. That's why culture has to be at the core of any business transformation.

The way management treats associates is exactly how the associates will treat the customers.

You know, as most entrepreneurs do, that a company is only as good as its people. The hard part is actually building the team that will embody your company's culture and propel you forward.

How do you make your company a good place to work in general? That's a really, really, really large and complex set of skills. A lot of it is on-the-job training, combined with excellent mentorship.

Sharing information with employees makes them feel invested.

Chick-fil-A is what it is today because of its people, purpose and product.

When we began Starbucks, what I wanted to try to do was to create a set of values, guiding principles, and culture.