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
great likely
AI will probably most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there'll be great companies.
balance cannot community great learn truly
If the Reddit community cannot learn to balance authenticity and compassion, it may be a great website, but it will never be a truly great community.
authority companies founders great history returning
There is a long history of founders returning to companies and doing great things. Founders are able to set the vision for their companies with an authority no one else can.
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.
great
If you have a startup that's keeping it up at night because you think it's so great, then you should do that.
almost ask crushing founder great totally
If you ask a founder how their company is doing, they always say, 'Oh it's great. We're totally crushing it,' and that's almost never true.
ideas company great-idea
There are exceptions of course, but most companies start with a great idea - not a pivot.
communication really-great great-communication
You can't be focussed without really great communication
consumers tap
With Loopt Star, consumers get to tap interactive rewards wherever they may be.
time
The start-ups that do well are the ones that are working all the time.
companies facebook good google hit incredible job observed public standing terrible
Being a public company is really terrible for most companies. I'd say Facebook and Google have done a pretty good job of standing up to the incredible quarterly pressure to hit numbers, but most companies - and I've observed a lot now - don't do a very good job of that.
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.