Sam Altman
Sam Altman
Samuel H. "Sam" Altmanis an American entrepreneur, programmer, venture capitalist and blogger. He is the president of Y Combinator and co-chairman of OpenAI...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBusinessman
CountryUnited States of America
family handful hundred low prefer priority
Never put your family, friends, or significant other low on your priority list. Prefer a handful of truly close friends to a hundred acquaintances.
clearly describe
It's easy to say, 'I'm going to build something that already exists,' but it's difficult to clearly and succinctly describe something new.
mission
It's so important for startups to get their culture right at the start. They need to feel unique and that they are on their own important mission in the world.
bad compete diagram famous good great ideas lie people secretly thus totally until
There's this famous observation that I totally believe: Great startup ideas are the ones that lie in the intersection of the Venn diagram of 'is a good idea' and 'looks like a bad idea.' So you want most people to think it's a bad idea and thus not compete with you until you get giant. But for it to secretly be good.
feature
Asking what I'd do without Loopt is almost like asking what I would do if I didn't have a smartphone because the feature set has become the norm for me.
people profile sell stuff
The nice thing about Reddit is, we don't have to sell your data or build a profile of you or do stuff that makes people feel uncomfortable.
rewarding
The whole concept of rewarding customers is a big trend.
scale
The way to really scale a venture firm is with software.
billion build companies dollar love people shortcut
The way to build billion dollar companies is to first build something people love. There isn't really a shortcut there.
cool fund
The thing about Y Combinator that's cool is that most companies won't happen if we don't fund them.
case jobs technology time
Technology magnifies differences, and it's been replacing or obviating jobs for a long time. But what happens as that case accelerates? I'm not one of these doomsayers who says, 'There will be no jobs.'
best fund people
Sometimes people think Y Combinator has big ideas about themes. But really, we just fund the best startups.
investing people silicon status symbol
Seed investing is the status symbol of Silicon Valley. Most people don't want Ferraris, they want a winning seed investment.
You really want a company full of missionaries, not mercenaries.