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> Does that mean you can't start a startup in college? Not at all. Sam Altman, the co-founder of Loopt, had just finished his sophomore year when we funded them

> Does that mean you can't start a startup in college? Not at all. Sam Altman, the co-founder of Loopt, had just finished his sophomore year when we funded them, and Loopt is probably the most promising of all the startups we've funded so far. But Sam Altman is a very unusual guy. Within about three minutes of meeting him, I remember thinking "Ah, so this is what Bill Gates must have been like when he was 19." I wonder what this Sam Altman guy will be up to 17 years later

throwaway2203 4y ago
Had to look it up. > Altman is the CEO of OpenAI Got it.
- romanhn 4y ago
  Also the former president of Y Combinator
thundergolfer 4y ago
Altman's had huge success, but that comparison to Gates aged like milk. Gates is one of America's great industrialists, founding and growing a company into becoming one of the most valuable in the world. Loopt mostly failed, and Altman's other founded company is WorldCoin, which also has basically failed. Altman's talent has been as an operator within the YCombinator rocketship. He hasn't shown he can build technology or great companies.
- blairbeckwith 4y ago
  Will be very interesting to see how this comment ages based on the trajectory of the last couple of years.
  - postsantum 4y ago
    One can argue that OpenAI's success is due to techno-magic and not the CEO's genious. Unlike MS
    - BiteCode_dev 4y ago
      You mean, unlike the genious idea of stealing MS-DOS from Gary Kildall? I mean, sure, you can make great profits when you put morality asides. Which Gates did again and again. People forget about this today because of the extensive PR of the last decades to wash the sins of the past, but Gates and MS were basically in the middle of a scandal every 6 months in the 90. Quite amazing since twitter did not exist to report it.
      - kjksf 4y ago
        Gates didn't steal anything. In fact, when IBM came to Microsoft to talk about licensing their programming languages for the PC, it was IBM who wanted a packaged deal i.e. get the OS from Microsoft as well. And it was Gates who told IBM reps to go talk to Kildall. Only when Kildall apparently blew them off Gates took a great risk by promising to deliver an OS as well. And he did it by buying an existing product to use as a base and evolving it. It's all well document from both Microsoft people and IBM people.
        BiteCode_dev 4y ago
        That's the post PR story. And in a few years, there will be no documents stating anything wrong about Gates, only the praises.
      - srhtftw 4y ago
        Although Microsoft has stolen things (e.g. from Stac Electronics¹) in this circumstance I believe you've confused "stealing" from Gary Kildall with "licensing" from Tim Patterson². ¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stac_Electronics#Microsoft_lawsuit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stac_Electronics#Microsoft_law... ² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOS#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOS#History
- xivzgrev 4y ago
  OpenAI? He’s been playing long game, working at this since 2015. That’s a long time to be playing without much of a payoff, but it’s all come to fruition now. That to me shows a lot of leadership ability.
  - wintogreen74 4y ago
    >> He’s been playing long game 7 or 8 years is only considered the "long game" in Nintendo or JavaScript framework time. I'd also argue jumping between substantially different industries, ideas and companies is NOT the long game, rather he's continued to play a game, and with significant systemic advantages found something that might be a moderate to large success.

throwaway2203 4y ago

Had to look it up. > Altman is the CEO of OpenAI Got it.

romanhn 4y ago
Also the former president of Y Combinator

thundergolfer 4y ago

Altman's had huge success, but that comparison to Gates aged like milk. Gates is one of America's great industrialists, founding and growing a company into becoming one of the most valuable in the world. Loopt mostly failed, and Altman's other founded company is WorldCoin, which also has basically failed. Altman's talent has been as an operator within the YCombinator rocketship. He hasn't shown he can build technology or great companies.

blairbeckwith 4y ago
Will be very interesting to see how this comment ages based on the trajectory of the last couple of years.
- postsantum 4y ago
  One can argue that OpenAI's success is due to techno-magic and not the CEO's genious. Unlike MS
  - BiteCode_dev 4y ago
    You mean, unlike the genious idea of stealing MS-DOS from Gary Kildall? I mean, sure, you can make great profits when you put morality asides. Which Gates did again and again. People forget about this today because of the extensive PR of the last decades to wash the sins of the past, but Gates and MS were basically in the middle of a scandal every 6 months in the 90. Quite amazing since twitter did not exist to report it.
    - kjksf 4y ago
      Gates didn't steal anything. In fact, when IBM came to Microsoft to talk about licensing their programming languages for the PC, it was IBM who wanted a packaged deal i.e. get the OS from Microsoft as well. And it was Gates who told IBM reps to go talk to Kildall. Only when Kildall apparently blew them off Gates took a great risk by promising to deliver an OS as well. And he did it by buying an existing product to use as a base and evolving it. It's all well document from both Microsoft people and IBM people.
      - BiteCode_dev 4y ago
        That's the post PR story. And in a few years, there will be no documents stating anything wrong about Gates, only the praises.
    - srhtftw 4y ago
      Although Microsoft has stolen things (e.g. from Stac Electronics¹) in this circumstance I believe you've confused "stealing" from Gary Kildall with "licensing" from Tim Patterson². ¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stac_Electronics#Microsoft_lawsuit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stac_Electronics#Microsoft_law... ² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOS#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOS#History
xivzgrev 4y ago
OpenAI? He’s been playing long game, working at this since 2015. That’s a long time to be playing without much of a payoff, but it’s all come to fruition now. That to me shows a lot of leadership ability.
- wintogreen74 4y ago
  >> He’s been playing long game 7 or 8 years is only considered the "long game" in Nintendo or JavaScript framework time. I'd also argue jumping between substantially different industries, ideas and companies is NOT the long game, rather he's continued to play a game, and with significant systemic advantages found something that might be a moderate to large success.