Sam Altman argues that now is an unusually good time for founders to start "hard" companies rather than "easy" ones. He contrasts crowded, incremental software/easy startups with ambitious, risky ventures (e.g., nuclear fusion), saying hard companies attract mission-driven talent, benefit from tailwinds, and require long-term (≈10 year) commitment.
Chapters
I think in the current environment it's easier to start a hard company than it is to start an easy company. The year that I started, the year before, there had been like many thousands of photo sharing startups that had gotten started because everyone wanted to be the next Instagram. It was sort of as that was Rise was starting and there were four nuclear fusion startups in the world. And that seemed to me like wrong or at least like a misallocation of risk reward. And I think one is that a lot of people have this thing which is I need to first like start a company so that I can make $100 million in three years and then I'm going to do what I want. And actually I think a lot of those people, if they would relax that very short time constraint, would go on to make a successful software company and then could do something else. But this thing of like, I got to do this thing very quickly to solve this problem and then I'm going to go start a company then that seems to usually not work. And so I think people have this feeling which is like, I gotta just, I can't take that much risk. It's like it's this special time. I can start a software company, make all this money and then I can like be free to do whatever I want and I'll have already succeeded and I won't be stressed. But then they're not willing to make a long term commitment to that either. And even easy companies, no company is easy. But even things that people perceive as easy companies, it still takes like 10 years and so you still gotta like really commit to do it well. And I actually think there's never been an easier time to start a hard company as your first company. Easy companies are boring. It is very hard to get the 10th or the 20th employee to join. It's very hard to like differentiate. There's hundreds of shots on goal for every good idea and people don't care that much. And if you are starting a nuclear fusion company, even if the odds are against you, people really want to help you. You have this tailwind, people want to join you in the quest and that is a super valuable thing. Especially in a time when there's so much clutter and so much noise. And so I think that if you're going to, if you're going to start any company, it's like a 10 year commitment. And if it works and it's not easy to start the easy company.
