9 ms·

Greg

376 points by sama 10y ago

tmaly 10y ago
someone like Greg is going to be hard to come by.
brockbug 10y ago
THis stupid hero worship continues. You guys got lucky. Period
- nilved 10y ago
  Bingo. This reads as self-congratulatory.
  - jrowley 10y ago
    I can see where you are coming from - This piece wouldn't hurt to have some recognition from Sam that YC is in a unique/fortunate position and can get great talent because of that, but at the same time, it must get old qualifying everything you're doing with 'this might not be feasible to the lay person/organization but...' I don't think you need to read too much into it. Sam is reflecting on his personal blog about someone he sees as exceptional, and I really appreciated the piece bc it shows another path to being a successful/useful person.
  - throwaway13100 10y ago
    It's Sam Altman; what else would you expect? He's a textbook example of the charming, successful CEO and sociopath.
Kevin_S 10y ago
YC at this moment is able to recruit the absolute top talent for any position they can envision. Damn that is a lot of power they wield, especially in starting these projects like Open AI and the Basic Income. I'd love to be able to invest in YC, as I think a good return at this point is one of the best bets an investor could make.
- gist 10y ago
  > YC at this moment is able to recruit the absolute top talent for any position they can envision. Absolute top talent? I think you are blinded by the light of YC. Not everyone thinks that or even close to it. [1] [2] By way of example I am reminded when I told a young person that I was helping to look on the page of a vc/angel investor that I do work for and know (among many). I said 'look at what they are doing I can get you an easy interview at any of those companies even if they don't have an opening'. They looked (was a woman iim) and said 'no thanks looks like they are all doing strange weird stuff'. This particular person preferred a traditional and solid company I am guessing, not a shot at the moon. And there are plenty of people like that. Plenty of smart capable people in the world and not all would die to work for a YC company or YC affiliated venture. [1] Note I make money off the shot at the moon company so don't take this as some kind of sour grapes.. [2] And while most people know who Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos are (what I will call 'the aunt' test) most people have never heard of Sam, PG or YC for that matter.
  - lkbm 10y ago
    > [2] And while most people know who Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos are (what I will call 'the aunt' test) most people have never heard of Sam, PG or YC for that matter. Sure, but most software engineers probably have. While companies need a lot more than just engineers, having a leg up on engineering recruitment (especially as a very early-stage startup) seems extremely valuable.
    - gedrap 10y ago
      Highly doubt it :) HN crowd is a small subset of all professional engineers.
27182818284 10y ago
>high latency I wonder if that's a typo.
- jrowley 10y ago
  No, I think Sam is saying that it takes a while for Elon/Sam to reply to Greg, and even given that, Greg responds quickly. Thats a good practice because it shows you're eager/dedicated to moving forward.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- kristiandupont 10y ago
  I think he meant in the Sam->Greg direction
pgroves 10y ago
But why does Greg need a cofounder?
- jrowley 10y ago
  a few reasons: a) Technical support b) someone to bounce ideas off of constantly. c) someone to support the organization should he need to take an unexpected leave.
  - CPLX 10y ago
    c) they are Elon Musk and Sam Altman
- gdb 10y ago
  (I am Greg.) Starting something new is incredibly hard. The default is that your company never even forms, and it's on you to overcome the activation energy. I don't think I'd have the mental fortitude to stick that out alone. In contrast, there's nothing more motivating than working with great people (and it's hard to do better than Ilya, Sam, and Elon). Everyone brings their own core strengths to the table, and if you've picked well your own efforts will be multiplied.
  - loteck 10y ago
    Thanks for chiming in. Would you mind giving your thoughts on an important question here? Which of your qualities specifically do you feel are actually under discussion here, and how would you recommend others build, enhance or foster those qualities if they wanted to do so? In other words, assuming someone wanted to, how would they become more "Greg?"
  - brilliantcode 10y ago
    I use to think the same things but I realized that all the soft skills that the other guy claimed he possessed were all attainable with relative ease compared to the hard skills around coding, machine learning etc.
- vinceguidry 10y ago
codingdave 10y ago
Every success DOES need a guy like Greg. But I really worry about the part where Greg was working on the effort full-time, doing it all while the other guys still worked. When it ends in success, it is a great story. When it ends without success, Greg is the guy who put all his time into it, then ends up with nothing. Greg becomes the warning story. Greg is the guy you need. Not necessarily the guy you want to be.
- smacktoward 10y ago
  There is a very, very fine line dividing "chief optimist" from "sucker."
  - ProAm 10y ago
    Sounds like we need a Co-founder basic income?
    - noonespecial 10y ago
      That's a fantastic idea. We could give it a special name to avoid confusion. How about "salary"?
      - rl3 10y ago
        You often hear about founder salaries being set intentionally low by VCs to keep founders hungry. While I don't dispute the power of stress and pressure to light a fire under someone's ass, I don't think it should come in the form of a person's livelihood. For example, it's not hard to imagine founder(s) that have been working for years on something with no pay, putting them far behind their traditionally-employed peers. They may even have family obligations on top of that. Proceeding to then pay them low wages in the interest of motivation isn't exactly the best idea. Granted, I do tend to agree with the ethos of having the founder being the lowest-paid employee in the company. Ideally that just ensures everyone else is paid really, really well.
        10y ago
throwaway13100 10y ago
Never let it be forgotten that Sam Altman's first big "success" was Loopt, a gay hookup app that was slowly dying and only even got acquired because a Sequoia board member who invested in it made Green Dot buy it so he wouldn't lose his money. Every time you read one of these arrogant, triumphalist blog posts from Altman, remember that his first big success was really a total failure that got bailed out thanks to a VC backroom deal.
- edanm 10y ago
  Whether what you're saying is true or not, do we really need to remember this every single time we read anything he writes? How about we just hear what he has to say and then decide if it's worth listening to? (Besides which, at this stage, whatever his earlier successes or failures, you can hardly say he isn't at least worth listening to based on his experience at YC.)
  - throwaway13100 10y ago
    That "success" propelled him to countless more, including the presidency of YC. Altman's example demonstrates that success in the startup/VC game has much more to do with luck and connections than merit.
    - cryptarch 10y ago
      Being highly connected and being capable of utilizing your luck are skills IMO, and I don't understand why you feel the need to speak so spitefully of him.
      - Thrillington 10y ago
        THANK YOU. Finally someone who realizes luck is just floating around out there equally available to everyone and it's just the people who work hard enough on their bootstraps that see success. Gotcha. </s>
  - cryptarch 10y ago
Diederich 10y ago
> Elon and I were both busy with day jobs ... Epic, lovely understatement there!
gormo2 10y ago
What was the inspiration for the dinner that kicked off OpenAI? What made you invite Greg to it?
- btkramer9 10y ago
  I was wondering the same thing. Found this article that sums it up pretty nicely. https://blog.gregbrockman.com/my-path-to-openai https://blog.gregbrockman.com/my-path-to-openai
rl3 10y ago
>Greg is a world-class recruiter (he plans every detail of interviews, heavily researches candidate’s backgrounds, sends thoughtful and persistent followups, and so on), and I now believe even more strongly that someone on the founding team has to be an amazing recruiter. I maintain a version-controlled text file of people I want to hire for my startup, should hell ever freeze over and I secure funding some day. The nice part is that doing so usually goes hand-in-hand with the product/market/technology research you conduct anyways, so the practice has a very low time investment attached to it. For the most part, you simply stumble upon desirable people during the course of seemingly unrelated research, dig into their background, and then add them to the list. On a humorous note, quite a few people on my list later ended up being hired by YC HARC. Hey Sam, what are the finer points of YC companies* trying to hire talent attached to YC projects? Can you offer any pointers? :) * Not a YC company (yet).
- jimmykennedy 10y ago
  "should hell ever freeze over and I secure funding some day" Your low self-esteem is sabotaging you.
  - rl3 10y ago
    Ah, it was intended as half tongue-in-cheek. Making light of tough situations is usually for the best. Sorry for not making that more clear. My smiley face budget had already been reached by the latter portion of that post. Anything exceeding one smiley and you end up looking like you're on something, especially on HN. Heck, even just one can be suspect!
    - jessaustin 10y ago
      Yes it's better to be misunderstood, than to use too many smileys.
      - rl3 10y ago
        Case in point: I'm not sure if your comment was genuine snark, or if you simply refrained from adding a smiley. It's turtles all the way down. :)
linkmotif 10y ago
Great piece thank you.
6stringmerc 10y ago
This nice summation really reminds me of a quote from Shawshank Redemption which is, I must admit, not the most flattering in a business context: >I'm a convicted felon who provides sound financial advice - it's a nice pet to have. The best takeaway for Technical / SV minded folks in this posting is quite clear: The odds of success are greatly enhanced when you have a Top Flight Communicator at your disposal. An ability to "walk amongst the tribes" is very important. It's a lot like getting various human systems into harmony / unison (nerves and cardiovascular for instance). I can state from first-hand experience with Bids/RFPs for projects worth tens of thousands to billions that the most important person in the room is the Proposal Coordinator and they get the least respect and compensation out of the gate. It's realistically a horribly stressful job that is only rewarding to a very select group of people, one of which happens to be me. I've learned how to herd cats. If I wanted to be, uh, less generous in my perspective, the Machiavellian perspective is much more clear: "Manipulating people is a profitable enterprise." That's why I have a photo of Winston Wolf in my peripheral vision every day at work, because his motto makes the most sense in a world plagued by Murphy's Laws... >My name is Winston Wolf. I solve problems.
CPLX 10y ago
The moral of the story here, clearly, is that when you're one of a pair of billionaires collectively responsible for some of the most successful entrepreneurship successes in recent history, and you decide to have someone handle logistics for a new venture, make sure they're enthusiastic.
- zt 10y ago
  This is reductionist and offensive. (1) On a practical level, although I don't know Greg's personal financial situation, he was the CTO of Stripe for five years. He's rich enough not to work. He works exactly because he's enthusiastic. (2) Secondly, to say that Greg merely handles logistics for OpenAI is to willfully ignore the post as written, and the reality on the ground. Also, I'm not sure Sam is a billionaire, although well on his way.
  - CPLX 10y ago
    I don't think it's offensive to point out that recruiting an enthusiastic, engaged, and talented cofounder is different for Elon Musk and Sam Altman than it is for the fledgling startup founder that is the standard reader of YC blog posts. It would have been fine if he was just telling a story about his own life, but when he said "make sure you also have someone like Greg" it became fair to point out that he seems a little bit oblivious as to context.
    - zt 10y ago
      I misinterpreted your first post as being a lot more snarky than this second comment suggests, sorry about that.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- sama 10y ago
  For sure it's easier for me than almost anyone else to recruit a cofounder, but I think (hope) the observations about important traits to look for are helpful more generally.
rihegher 10y ago
Greg remind me of Jared in the Silicon Valley TV show
capocannoniere 10y ago
> Greg is a world-class recruiter (he plans every detail of interviews, heavily researches candidate’s backgrounds, sends thoughtful and persistent followups, and so on), and I now believe even more strongly that someone on the founding team has to be an amazing recruiter. The early openAI team is clearly superb. What's even more impressive to me, is that the quality of the team has remained incredibly strong as the team grew to 45+ people: IMO/IOI medalists, startup founders and key contributors, world-class Phd's who could easily get tenure-track positions at top universities, etc. [1] [2] It's not uncommon for a startup to have a strong founding team. It's almost unheard of that just about every single individual of a 45+ person team is objectively exceptional.[3] Not sure how much Greg is still involved in recruiting, but either way, congrats. (No affiliation to OpenAI, besides knowing a few people there) [1] https://openai.com/blog/team-update-january/ https://openai.com/blog/team-update-january/ [2] https://openai.com/blog/team-update-august/ https://openai.com/blog/team-update-august/ [3] I don't know any startups in which all of the first 50 employees were truly exceptional prior to them joining the company. I guess Google, for example, might have had an incredibly strong early team, but I'm not sure they were as strong prior to them joining Google.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
CptJamesCook 10y ago
Greg Brockman: Went to MIT Went to Harvard Was CTO of a 10 billion dollar company for 5 years, starting the year it was founded Yeah, I'd take a cofounder like that.
gcheong 10y ago
If all startups need a Greg and there are only so many Gregs to go around, can new Gregs be deliberately created?
- birken 10y ago
  I've only worked at one startup, which was quite successful, and nobody there fit the description of Greg (unless you permute it to be so vague that everybody is Greg). Therefore, you don't need a Greg character for your startup to be successful. Clearly he is a very impressive person with very impressive results and I'm sure I'd enjoy working at a company with him, or people like him. I don't like this myth though. Startups are chaos, and pretending that as long as you have this magical person there solving all your problems that your chaos is somehow incorrect. The startup I worked for was full of normal imperfect humans who got offended, had trouble figuring out the direction of the company, were not world-class recruiters, were not always thoughtful and ran into problems big and small all the time. The company didn't die because there was a group of dedicated, imperfect people, who didn't want the company to die, not because there was one "Chief Optimist" holding it all together. If there was a "Chief Optimist" role, it was a very mobile position based on who was feeling best at that particular moment. This isn't to say you can't and shouldn't actively try to make yourself better [1], you should. But you don't need a perfectly formed person working at your startup for it to succeed. And I want to note, I'm not disputing the existence of superhuman individuals, they exist and I'm sure power a lot of amazing achievements. You just don't need them to succeed, a bunch of normal people can do it too. 1: For whatever definition of better you want, in this context it would probably mean being a better startup founder
- striking 10y ago
  Startups do not necessarily, specifically need "a Greg." Startups need "at least one person who provides the force of will to make the startup happen", and Greg is an instance of such a person. As long as you believe you can find such force of will within yourself, you too can be a little bit like Greg. But beware: there is only one Greg. Don't try to be Greg, because you are you and will never be Greg. Instead, follow in Greg's example. Learn from Greg. Find the force of will inside you. Practice your communication and empathy skills. And prepare to work your butt off. In other words, be a little like Greg. And maybe you'll find success in the startup world.
zt 10y ago
I'm sure that many others could write much better informed or detailed additions to Sama's post. All I will say is that I worked at Stripe very briefly -- for about three months -- when the company was about thirty people (before I went on to go through YC). Greg was incredibly generous with his time in explaining and working with me as a non-engineer. I don't think he had been named CTO yet (Stripe was quite title phobic at the start) but it was clear that he was both a technical and non-technical leader of the company. He spent time to explain code and architecture to me, while also chatting through cultural norms and various organizational tensions Stripe was experiencing as it grew. I think the acculturation to Stripe that he very deliberately supported in me was critical for what (little) success I had with Standard Treasury. This is all to say that Sama’s post is spot on in my experience. Greg exhibited every one of the mentioned characteristics (except recruiting, I didn’t interacting with him on that) even when working with someone with which he didn’t have to be so generous.
ilaksh 10y ago
Cool but why doesn't he get a last name. I don't actually know who it is.
- justinhensley 10y ago
  Greg Brockman. It's in the second sentence of the post.
  - forbiddenlake 10y ago
    It's still a nearly context-free headline, which is a pet peeve of mine at Hacker News. The headline should contain actual information that tells me why I care and should click. "Greg" is quite insufficient, with the only saving grace being I can see the domain name and know who Sam Altman is.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
mirceam 10y ago
This might be besides the point of the post, but I'll ask anyway. @Greg, perhaps you could talk a bit about what you think makes you a productive engineer and problem-solver. What's your workflow like, how do you approach a problem, or learning a new concept, what tools do you use, etc.
dzink 10y ago
Greg is humble, resourceful, and smart. That combination alone is enough to move mountains. However, what Sam's piece is missing is the "Why?". Why would someone who can do anything do YOUR thing and take any crud task it takes to finish the job, especially after they've made their fortune? Greg should give his own "Why?" about OpenAI. From what I know if 100 years from now someone looks back at this fork in the road of History, they would see two scenarios: Either a couple of big players will own the most powerful instrument in the hands of mankind, to use at their (or their highest bidder's) discretion, or mankind will jointly get to ensure the instrument has a safety handle to protect life and all things most important. For the latter, I'd bet many of the smartest people here would want to do the crud work, even if they're not cofounders. The job of the ideal co-founder is to spread a mission that matters this much to everyone who would be fit to achieve it, inspiring all employees to be as committed. Well, OpenAI powered relentlessly by Greg, has inspired thousands of volunteers and open-source contributors in addition to it's top-notch staff.
- dilemma 10y ago
  I've heard OpenAI isn't actually open source. Is it?
  - conradev 10y ago
    https://github.com/openai https://github.com/openai
  - gavanwoolery 10y ago
    They do have open source projects, but their mission is not to necessarily be an open source company. They want to equalize the footing in AI for everyone, and this might require some degree of secrecy so that commercial AI companies do not get an edge. At least, that is my perception, feel free to correct me.
    - angersock 10y ago
      > They want to equalize the footing in AI for everyone Equal opportunity to pay, or actually democratizing it so that anybody who wants to use it can reap the benefits? I'm willing to bet it's not the latter, given the reliance of AI on large training corpuses and machine time.
ttam 10y ago
@gdb: do you have anything to say about sama's post? and what have been the activities that you found most valuable in your life?
gavanwoolery 10y ago
I only worked at OpenAI for a short period, but what was written here seems to mirror what I saw, FWIW. I would add in that Greg struck me as one of the sharpest people in the company, and one of the hardest working (he would often stay there late into the night, even on weekends).
davidhariri 10y ago
Damn. Wish I was Greg.
satysin 10y ago
This kind of goes with something I said a while ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12761258 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12761258 A good project manager[0] to keep on top of everything and pick up all the miscellaneous tasks can/will make or break a startup. [0] Well the title doesn't matter but I used PM so I will stick to that title.
fourstar 10y ago
> with an average email response time of about 5 minutes to anything Why is this being praised? Can't stand the "always on" economy. It's OK to not immediately to respond to things.
- wsinks 10y ago
  Especially after he says that he didn't reply back quickly (living in a high-latency environment)
metaphorm 10y ago
I disliked the article. I think sama is simultaneously over-personalizing and also losing context and perspective. Sure, maybe it is a generalizable description of virtuous qualities but it also strikes me as something different and much worse. Here's another interpretation "I sure am fortunate that I know this wealthy, well-connected person who helps me with my businesses that require knowing wealthy, well-connected people."
mwetzler 10y ago
Nice and sweet love letter to Greg. Shared with our founders. We have a slightly alternative model: There hasn't been a consistent Greg 5+ years, but there is always a founder willing to be Greg when the previous Greg needs a break. Especially important once people start having children and go through the various ups and downs of life.
brilliantcode 10y ago
Greg sounds like me. Usually gets taken advantage of by people writing articles like this.
- kelvin0 10y ago
  That's exactly the thoughts that came to my mind. Article is big on complimenting Greg about his qualities being able to follow others, and drive a given vision handed down to him. Hopefully, this article is simply not doing the Person justice and is simply poorly thought out and comes out as a superficial 'fluff' piece.
  - sokoloff 10y ago
    Different people are skilled at and like doing different things. I'm not the "big, original vision" guy. I'm the guy who pairs with the big vision guy and figures out the myriad details required to make that big vision come to fruition, figures out how to reign in the unrealistic, unachievable, or merely "sometime later" parts of the vision, so we can deliver in the near-term on the parts that are achievable. That means I often get (and win at) the second-in-command role, but I don't see that as being taken advantage of at all. I've made quite a good career of it and honestly and earnestly enjoy it.
    - brilliantcode 10y ago
      The guy who made me work on an MVP for the next 3 month while he was on a vacation told me the same thing. Apparently, if you have a big enough vision, it's along the lines of "why aren't you working for my awesome ideas for free? I even gave you teeny amount of equity"
      - kelvin0 10y ago
        I think I might use that quote and print it on T-shirts.
graycat 10y ago
From about 20,000 feet higher than the OP, one of the issues about PG, Sam, and YC is the combination of (1) lots of warnings about the dangers of disputes among startup co-founders and, thus, the extreme need for yet another startup co-founder, this one to play den mother, peace maker, mother hen, group psychologist, Chief Cat Herder, etc. versus (2) extreme negativity about a solo founder. From another 10,000 feet up, here is a simple observation: All across the US, from the largest cities to the smallest crossroad communities, there are solo founders of successful auto repair shops, auto body shops, dentist practices, CPA practices, rental property ownership and management, pizza carryout shops, Chinese carry out shops, Mobil Travel Guide five star restaurants, pediatrician practices, manufacturer representative practices, big-truck, little-truck businesses of wide variety, etc. where commonly the cash to start the business is higher than that of servers, domain name, and Internet connection of a Web site. So, solo founders do relatively well in main street startups. Since co-founders are not crucial for main street business and since a Web site startup should be in most ways easier, why are co-founders crucial for Web site startups? Since co-founder disputes are so common and potentially destructive, why be so eager to have co-founders and so down on solo founders? With the above, to me, hiring a co-founder as a recruiter, office peace maker, general evangelist, smiling face, optimistic, good hand shake, meeter and greeter who knows a lot of people is a big slice of cash and equity for the usual thin budget of a startup. Or, as we often hear, the crucial work of a startup is to keep the burn rate as low as possible and ASAP please the customers/users and get to earnings. In this case, an office peace maker, etc. is at best a nice to have if for free, otherwise not a must have for free, and likely too expensive if have to pay much.

Greg

376 points by sama 10y ago

tmaly 10y ago

someone like Greg is going to be hard to come by.

brockbug 10y ago

THis stupid hero worship continues. You guys got lucky. Period

nilved 10y ago
Bingo. This reads as self-congratulatory.
- jrowley 10y ago
  I can see where you are coming from - This piece wouldn't hurt to have some recognition from Sam that YC is in a unique/fortunate position and can get great talent because of that, but at the same time, it must get old qualifying everything you're doing with 'this might not be feasible to the lay person/organization but...' I don't think you need to read too much into it. Sam is reflecting on his personal blog about someone he sees as exceptional, and I really appreciated the piece bc it shows another path to being a successful/useful person.
- throwaway13100 10y ago
  It's Sam Altman; what else would you expect? He's a textbook example of the charming, successful CEO and sociopath.

Kevin_S 10y ago

YC at this moment is able to recruit the absolute top talent for any position they can envision. Damn that is a lot of power they wield, especially in starting these projects like Open AI and the Basic Income. I'd love to be able to invest in YC, as I think a good return at this point is one of the best bets an investor could make.

gist 10y ago
> YC at this moment is able to recruit the absolute top talent for any position they can envision. Absolute top talent? I think you are blinded by the light of YC. Not everyone thinks that or even close to it. [1] [2] By way of example I am reminded when I told a young person that I was helping to look on the page of a vc/angel investor that I do work for and know (among many). I said 'look at what they are doing I can get you an easy interview at any of those companies even if they don't have an opening'. They looked (was a woman iim) and said 'no thanks looks like they are all doing strange weird stuff'. This particular person preferred a traditional and solid company I am guessing, not a shot at the moon. And there are plenty of people like that. Plenty of smart capable people in the world and not all would die to work for a YC company or YC affiliated venture. [1] Note I make money off the shot at the moon company so don't take this as some kind of sour grapes.. [2] And while most people know who Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos are (what I will call 'the aunt' test) most people have never heard of Sam, PG or YC for that matter.
- lkbm 10y ago
  > [2] And while most people know who Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos are (what I will call 'the aunt' test) most people have never heard of Sam, PG or YC for that matter. Sure, but most software engineers probably have. While companies need a lot more than just engineers, having a leg up on engineering recruitment (especially as a very early-stage startup) seems extremely valuable.
  - gedrap 10y ago
    Highly doubt it :) HN crowd is a small subset of all professional engineers.

27182818284 10y ago

>high latency I wonder if that's a typo.

jrowley 10y ago
No, I think Sam is saying that it takes a while for Elon/Sam to reply to Greg, and even given that, Greg responds quickly. Thats a good practice because it shows you're eager/dedicated to moving forward.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
kristiandupont 10y ago
I think he meant in the Sam->Greg direction

pgroves 10y ago

But why does Greg need a cofounder?

jrowley 10y ago
a few reasons: a) Technical support b) someone to bounce ideas off of constantly. c) someone to support the organization should he need to take an unexpected leave.
- CPLX 10y ago
  c) they are Elon Musk and Sam Altman
gdb 10y ago
(I am Greg.) Starting something new is incredibly hard. The default is that your company never even forms, and it's on you to overcome the activation energy. I don't think I'd have the mental fortitude to stick that out alone. In contrast, there's nothing more motivating than working with great people (and it's hard to do better than Ilya, Sam, and Elon). Everyone brings their own core strengths to the table, and if you've picked well your own efforts will be multiplied.
- loteck 10y ago
  Thanks for chiming in. Would you mind giving your thoughts on an important question here? Which of your qualities specifically do you feel are actually under discussion here, and how would you recommend others build, enhance or foster those qualities if they wanted to do so? In other words, assuming someone wanted to, how would they become more "Greg?"
- brilliantcode 10y ago
  I use to think the same things but I realized that all the soft skills that the other guy claimed he possessed were all attainable with relative ease compared to the hard skills around coding, machine learning etc.
vinceguidry 10y ago

codingdave 10y ago

Every success DOES need a guy like Greg. But I really worry about the part where Greg was working on the effort full-time, doing it all while the other guys still worked. When it ends in success, it is a great story. When it ends without success, Greg is the guy who put all his time into it, then ends up with nothing. Greg becomes the warning story. Greg is the guy you need. Not necessarily the guy you want to be.

smacktoward 10y ago
There is a very, very fine line dividing "chief optimist" from "sucker."
- ProAm 10y ago
  Sounds like we need a Co-founder basic income?
  - noonespecial 10y ago
    That's a fantastic idea. We could give it a special name to avoid confusion. How about "salary"?
    - rl3 10y ago
      You often hear about founder salaries being set intentionally low by VCs to keep founders hungry. While I don't dispute the power of stress and pressure to light a fire under someone's ass, I don't think it should come in the form of a person's livelihood. For example, it's not hard to imagine founder(s) that have been working for years on something with no pay, putting them far behind their traditionally-employed peers. They may even have family obligations on top of that. Proceeding to then pay them low wages in the interest of motivation isn't exactly the best idea. Granted, I do tend to agree with the ethos of having the founder being the lowest-paid employee in the company. Ideally that just ensures everyone else is paid really, really well.
      - 10y ago

throwaway13100 10y ago

Never let it be forgotten that Sam Altman's first big "success" was Loopt, a gay hookup app that was slowly dying and only even got acquired because a Sequoia board member who invested in it made Green Dot buy it so he wouldn't lose his money. Every time you read one of these arrogant, triumphalist blog posts from Altman, remember that his first big success was really a total failure that got bailed out thanks to a VC backroom deal.

edanm 10y ago
Whether what you're saying is true or not, do we really need to remember this every single time we read anything he writes? How about we just hear what he has to say and then decide if it's worth listening to? (Besides which, at this stage, whatever his earlier successes or failures, you can hardly say he isn't at least worth listening to based on his experience at YC.)
- throwaway13100 10y ago
  That "success" propelled him to countless more, including the presidency of YC. Altman's example demonstrates that success in the startup/VC game has much more to do with luck and connections than merit.
  - cryptarch 10y ago
    Being highly connected and being capable of utilizing your luck are skills IMO, and I don't understand why you feel the need to speak so spitefully of him.
    - Thrillington 10y ago
      THANK YOU. Finally someone who realizes luck is just floating around out there equally available to everyone and it's just the people who work hard enough on their bootstraps that see success. Gotcha. </s>
- cryptarch 10y ago

Diederich 10y ago

> Elon and I were both busy with day jobs ... Epic, lovely understatement there!

gormo2 10y ago

What was the inspiration for the dinner that kicked off OpenAI? What made you invite Greg to it?

btkramer9 10y ago
I was wondering the same thing. Found this article that sums it up pretty nicely. https://blog.gregbrockman.com/my-path-to-openai https://blog.gregbrockman.com/my-path-to-openai

rl3 10y ago

>Greg is a world-class recruiter (he plans every detail of interviews, heavily researches candidate’s backgrounds, sends thoughtful and persistent followups, and so on), and I now believe even more strongly that someone on the founding team has to be an amazing recruiter. I maintain a version-controlled text file of people I want to hire for my startup, should hell ever freeze over and I secure funding some day. The nice part is that doing so usually goes hand-in-hand with the product/market/technology research you conduct anyways, so the practice has a very low time investment attached to it. For the most part, you simply stumble upon desirable people during the course of seemingly unrelated research, dig into their background, and then add them to the list. On a humorous note, quite a few people on my list later ended up being hired by YC HARC. Hey Sam, what are the finer points of YC companies* trying to hire talent attached to YC projects? Can you offer any pointers? :) * Not a YC company (yet).

jimmykennedy 10y ago
"should hell ever freeze over and I secure funding some day" Your low self-esteem is sabotaging you.
- rl3 10y ago
  Ah, it was intended as half tongue-in-cheek. Making light of tough situations is usually for the best. Sorry for not making that more clear. My smiley face budget had already been reached by the latter portion of that post. Anything exceeding one smiley and you end up looking like you're on something, especially on HN. Heck, even just one can be suspect!
  - jessaustin 10y ago
    Yes it's better to be misunderstood, than to use too many smileys.
    - rl3 10y ago
      Case in point: I'm not sure if your comment was genuine snark, or if you simply refrained from adding a smiley. It's turtles all the way down. :)

linkmotif 10y ago

Great piece thank you.

6stringmerc 10y ago

This nice summation really reminds me of a quote from Shawshank Redemption which is, I must admit, not the most flattering in a business context: >I'm a convicted felon who provides sound financial advice - it's a nice pet to have. The best takeaway for Technical / SV minded folks in this posting is quite clear: The odds of success are greatly enhanced when you have a Top Flight Communicator at your disposal. An ability to "walk amongst the tribes" is very important. It's a lot like getting various human systems into harmony / unison (nerves and cardiovascular for instance). I can state from first-hand experience with Bids/RFPs for projects worth tens of thousands to billions that the most important person in the room is the Proposal Coordinator and they get the least respect and compensation out of the gate. It's realistically a horribly stressful job that is only rewarding to a very select group of people, one of which happens to be me. I've learned how to herd cats. If I wanted to be, uh, less generous in my perspective, the Machiavellian perspective is much more clear: "Manipulating people is a profitable enterprise." That's why I have a photo of Winston Wolf in my peripheral vision every day at work, because his motto makes the most sense in a world plagued by Murphy's Laws... >My name is Winston Wolf. I solve problems.

CPLX 10y ago

The moral of the story here, clearly, is that when you're one of a pair of billionaires collectively responsible for some of the most successful entrepreneurship successes in recent history, and you decide to have someone handle logistics for a new venture, make sure they're enthusiastic.

zt 10y ago
This is reductionist and offensive. (1) On a practical level, although I don't know Greg's personal financial situation, he was the CTO of Stripe for five years. He's rich enough not to work. He works exactly because he's enthusiastic. (2) Secondly, to say that Greg merely handles logistics for OpenAI is to willfully ignore the post as written, and the reality on the ground. Also, I'm not sure Sam is a billionaire, although well on his way.
- CPLX 10y ago
  I don't think it's offensive to point out that recruiting an enthusiastic, engaged, and talented cofounder is different for Elon Musk and Sam Altman than it is for the fledgling startup founder that is the standard reader of YC blog posts. It would have been fine if he was just telling a story about his own life, but when he said "make sure you also have someone like Greg" it became fair to point out that he seems a little bit oblivious as to context.
  - zt 10y ago
    I misinterpreted your first post as being a lot more snarky than this second comment suggests, sorry about that.
- deleted 10y ago
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sama 10y ago
For sure it's easier for me than almost anyone else to recruit a cofounder, but I think (hope) the observations about important traits to look for are helpful more generally.

rihegher 10y ago

Greg remind me of Jared in the Silicon Valley TV show

capocannoniere 10y ago

> Greg is a world-class recruiter (he plans every detail of interviews, heavily researches candidate’s backgrounds, sends thoughtful and persistent followups, and so on), and I now believe even more strongly that someone on the founding team has to be an amazing recruiter. The early openAI team is clearly superb. What's even more impressive to me, is that the quality of the team has remained incredibly strong as the team grew to 45+ people: IMO/IOI medalists, startup founders and key contributors, world-class Phd's who could easily get tenure-track positions at top universities, etc. [1] [2] It's not uncommon for a startup to have a strong founding team. It's almost unheard of that just about every single individual of a 45+ person team is objectively exceptional.[3] Not sure how much Greg is still involved in recruiting, but either way, congrats. (No affiliation to OpenAI, besides knowing a few people there) [1] https://openai.com/blog/team-update-january/ https://openai.com/blog/team-update-january/ [2] https://openai.com/blog/team-update-august/ https://openai.com/blog/team-update-august/ [3] I don't know any startups in which all of the first 50 employees were truly exceptional prior to them joining the company. I guess Google, for example, might have had an incredibly strong early team, but I'm not sure they were as strong prior to them joining Google.

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CptJamesCook 10y ago

Greg Brockman: Went to MIT Went to Harvard Was CTO of a 10 billion dollar company for 5 years, starting the year it was founded Yeah, I'd take a cofounder like that.

gcheong 10y ago

If all startups need a Greg and there are only so many Gregs to go around, can new Gregs be deliberately created?

birken 10y ago
I've only worked at one startup, which was quite successful, and nobody there fit the description of Greg (unless you permute it to be so vague that everybody is Greg). Therefore, you don't need a Greg character for your startup to be successful. Clearly he is a very impressive person with very impressive results and I'm sure I'd enjoy working at a company with him, or people like him. I don't like this myth though. Startups are chaos, and pretending that as long as you have this magical person there solving all your problems that your chaos is somehow incorrect. The startup I worked for was full of normal imperfect humans who got offended, had trouble figuring out the direction of the company, were not world-class recruiters, were not always thoughtful and ran into problems big and small all the time. The company didn't die because there was a group of dedicated, imperfect people, who didn't want the company to die, not because there was one "Chief Optimist" holding it all together. If there was a "Chief Optimist" role, it was a very mobile position based on who was feeling best at that particular moment. This isn't to say you can't and shouldn't actively try to make yourself better [1], you should. But you don't need a perfectly formed person working at your startup for it to succeed. And I want to note, I'm not disputing the existence of superhuman individuals, they exist and I'm sure power a lot of amazing achievements. You just don't need them to succeed, a bunch of normal people can do it too. 1: For whatever definition of better you want, in this context it would probably mean being a better startup founder
striking 10y ago
Startups do not necessarily, specifically need "a Greg." Startups need "at least one person who provides the force of will to make the startup happen", and Greg is an instance of such a person. As long as you believe you can find such force of will within yourself, you too can be a little bit like Greg. But beware: there is only one Greg. Don't try to be Greg, because you are you and will never be Greg. Instead, follow in Greg's example. Learn from Greg. Find the force of will inside you. Practice your communication and empathy skills. And prepare to work your butt off. In other words, be a little like Greg. And maybe you'll find success in the startup world.

zt 10y ago

I'm sure that many others could write much better informed or detailed additions to Sama's post. All I will say is that I worked at Stripe very briefly -- for about three months -- when the company was about thirty people (before I went on to go through YC). Greg was incredibly generous with his time in explaining and working with me as a non-engineer. I don't think he had been named CTO yet (Stripe was quite title phobic at the start) but it was clear that he was both a technical and non-technical leader of the company. He spent time to explain code and architecture to me, while also chatting through cultural norms and various organizational tensions Stripe was experiencing as it grew. I think the acculturation to Stripe that he very deliberately supported in me was critical for what (little) success I had with Standard Treasury. This is all to say that Sama’s post is spot on in my experience. Greg exhibited every one of the mentioned characteristics (except recruiting, I didn’t interacting with him on that) even when working with someone with which he didn’t have to be so generous.

ilaksh 10y ago

Cool but why doesn't he get a last name. I don't actually know who it is.

justinhensley 10y ago
Greg Brockman. It's in the second sentence of the post.
- forbiddenlake 10y ago
  It's still a nearly context-free headline, which is a pet peeve of mine at Hacker News. The headline should contain actual information that tells me why I care and should click. "Greg" is quite insufficient, with the only saving grace being I can see the domain name and know who Sam Altman is.

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mirceam 10y ago

This might be besides the point of the post, but I'll ask anyway. @Greg, perhaps you could talk a bit about what you think makes you a productive engineer and problem-solver. What's your workflow like, how do you approach a problem, or learning a new concept, what tools do you use, etc.

dzink 10y ago

Greg is humble, resourceful, and smart. That combination alone is enough to move mountains. However, what Sam's piece is missing is the "Why?". Why would someone who can do anything do YOUR thing and take any crud task it takes to finish the job, especially after they've made their fortune? Greg should give his own "Why?" about OpenAI. From what I know if 100 years from now someone looks back at this fork in the road of History, they would see two scenarios: Either a couple of big players will own the most powerful instrument in the hands of mankind, to use at their (or their highest bidder's) discretion, or mankind will jointly get to ensure the instrument has a safety handle to protect life and all things most important. For the latter, I'd bet many of the smartest people here would want to do the crud work, even if they're not cofounders. The job of the ideal co-founder is to spread a mission that matters this much to everyone who would be fit to achieve it, inspiring all employees to be as committed. Well, OpenAI powered relentlessly by Greg, has inspired thousands of volunteers and open-source contributors in addition to it's top-notch staff.

dilemma 10y ago
I've heard OpenAI isn't actually open source. Is it?
- conradev 10y ago
  https://github.com/openai https://github.com/openai
- gavanwoolery 10y ago
  They do have open source projects, but their mission is not to necessarily be an open source company. They want to equalize the footing in AI for everyone, and this might require some degree of secrecy so that commercial AI companies do not get an edge. At least, that is my perception, feel free to correct me.
  - angersock 10y ago
    > They want to equalize the footing in AI for everyone Equal opportunity to pay, or actually democratizing it so that anybody who wants to use it can reap the benefits? I'm willing to bet it's not the latter, given the reliance of AI on large training corpuses and machine time.

ttam 10y ago

@gdb: do you have anything to say about sama's post? and what have been the activities that you found most valuable in your life?

gavanwoolery 10y ago

I only worked at OpenAI for a short period, but what was written here seems to mirror what I saw, FWIW. I would add in that Greg struck me as one of the sharpest people in the company, and one of the hardest working (he would often stay there late into the night, even on weekends).

davidhariri 10y ago

Damn. Wish I was Greg.

satysin 10y ago

This kind of goes with something I said a while ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12761258 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12761258 A good project manager[0] to keep on top of everything and pick up all the miscellaneous tasks can/will make or break a startup. [0] Well the title doesn't matter but I used PM so I will stick to that title.

fourstar 10y ago

> with an average email response time of about 5 minutes to anything Why is this being praised? Can't stand the "always on" economy. It's OK to not immediately to respond to things.

wsinks 10y ago
Especially after he says that he didn't reply back quickly (living in a high-latency environment)

metaphorm 10y ago

I disliked the article. I think sama is simultaneously over-personalizing and also losing context and perspective. Sure, maybe it is a generalizable description of virtuous qualities but it also strikes me as something different and much worse. Here's another interpretation "I sure am fortunate that I know this wealthy, well-connected person who helps me with my businesses that require knowing wealthy, well-connected people."

mwetzler 10y ago

Nice and sweet love letter to Greg. Shared with our founders. We have a slightly alternative model: There hasn't been a consistent Greg 5+ years, but there is always a founder willing to be Greg when the previous Greg needs a break. Especially important once people start having children and go through the various ups and downs of life.

brilliantcode 10y ago

Greg sounds like me. Usually gets taken advantage of by people writing articles like this.

kelvin0 10y ago
That's exactly the thoughts that came to my mind. Article is big on complimenting Greg about his qualities being able to follow others, and drive a given vision handed down to him. Hopefully, this article is simply not doing the Person justice and is simply poorly thought out and comes out as a superficial 'fluff' piece.
- sokoloff 10y ago
  Different people are skilled at and like doing different things. I'm not the "big, original vision" guy. I'm the guy who pairs with the big vision guy and figures out the myriad details required to make that big vision come to fruition, figures out how to reign in the unrealistic, unachievable, or merely "sometime later" parts of the vision, so we can deliver in the near-term on the parts that are achievable. That means I often get (and win at) the second-in-command role, but I don't see that as being taken advantage of at all. I've made quite a good career of it and honestly and earnestly enjoy it.
  - brilliantcode 10y ago
    The guy who made me work on an MVP for the next 3 month while he was on a vacation told me the same thing. Apparently, if you have a big enough vision, it's along the lines of "why aren't you working for my awesome ideas for free? I even gave you teeny amount of equity"
    - kelvin0 10y ago
      I think I might use that quote and print it on T-shirts.

graycat 10y ago

From about 20,000 feet higher than the OP, one of the issues about PG, Sam, and YC is the combination of (1) lots of warnings about the dangers of disputes among startup co-founders and, thus, the extreme need for yet another startup co-founder, this one to play den mother, peace maker, mother hen, group psychologist, Chief Cat Herder, etc. versus (2) extreme negativity about a solo founder. From another 10,000 feet up, here is a simple observation: All across the US, from the largest cities to the smallest crossroad communities, there are solo founders of successful auto repair shops, auto body shops, dentist practices, CPA practices, rental property ownership and management, pizza carryout shops, Chinese carry out shops, Mobil Travel Guide five star restaurants, pediatrician practices, manufacturer representative practices, big-truck, little-truck businesses of wide variety, etc. where commonly the cash to start the business is higher than that of servers, domain name, and Internet connection of a Web site. So, solo founders do relatively well in main street startups. Since co-founders are not crucial for main street business and since a Web site startup should be in most ways easier, why are co-founders crucial for Web site startups? Since co-founder disputes are so common and potentially destructive, why be so eager to have co-founders and so down on solo founders? With the above, to me, hiring a co-founder as a recruiter, office peace maker, general evangelist, smiling face, optimistic, good hand shake, meeter and greeter who knows a lot of people is a big slice of cash and equity for the usual thin budget of a startup. Or, as we often hear, the crucial work of a startup is to keep the burn rate as low as possible and ASAP please the customers/users and get to earnings. In this case, an office peace maker, etc. is at best a nice to have if for free, otherwise not a must have for free, and likely too expensive if have to pay much.