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Paul Graham is his Les Wexner. "Sam Altman, the co-founder of Loopt, had just finished his sophomore year when we funded them, and Loopt is probably the most p
by ftxbro 4y ago
Paul Graham is his Les Wexner.
"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.'"
"Honestly, Sam is, along with Steve Jobs, the founder I refer to most when I'm advising startups. On questions of design, I ask "What would Steve do?" but on questions of strategy or ambition I ask "What would Sama do?"
What I learned from meeting Sama is that the doctrine of the elect applies to startups. It applies way less than most people think: startup investing does not consist of trying to pick winners the way you might in a horse race. But there are a few people with such force of will that they're going to get whatever they want."
- version_five 4y agoIf anyone has read "Wild Sheep Chase" by Haruki Murukami, there was the idea of being possessed by the sheep which turned one into a forceful business man. I have only met a couple people like this, but as in the quote it's immediately obvious, and you see why they are where they are.
- gautamcgoel 4y agoIn my opinion, this book is his most underrated book. It's very funny, highly recommend!
- maxilevi 4y ago> I have only met a couple people like this, but as in the quote it's immediately obvious, and you see why they are where they are. What do you mean by this?
- version_five 4y agoI mean they are successful and it's clear from a short interaction with them why that's the case. And I'm referring to the PG quote above about his impression of Sam Altman.
- jasmer 4y agoLoopt was a failure. Political skills. It's a stream of PR, not anything operationally applied, or performant.
- bmitc 4y agoI feel I'd take every word of that with a massive grain of salt. It reeks of cult of personality.
- dilap 4y agoI did take it with a huge grain of salt (and an eye-roll) reading it years ago. However, given where sama and OpenAI are today, perhaps pg was right all along!
- HarHarVeryFunny 4y agoIt seems consistent with anything I've ever read from VCs - success is based on teams/people not the idea (and it's quite common for startups to "pivot" to brand new ideas if one is not getting traction). The Microsoft investment in OpenAI came out of a chance meeting between Altman and Nadella at some conference they were both attending - Altman pitched him on the idea, and was evidentially very persuasive to get that level of investment!