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Is it? They state they've funded 5000 companies since 2005[1], and if that was evenly spread per year, that's about a company a day. Maybe pg only pays attent

Is it? They state they've funded 5000 companies since 2005[1], and if that was evenly spread per year, that's about a company a day. Maybe pg only pays attention to the ones that other people bring to his attention given that amount, and maybe he "knew" about OpenAI in that it was in some report he skimmed or was mentioned but maybe it was seen as entirely handled since it was a project for someone else there. It could entirely have been out of mind within a week or two of him "knowing" it and then it's quickly forgotten, and may seem like new information when it comes up years later. 1: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies https://www.ycombinator.com/companies

whoknowsidont 2y ago
>Is it? Yes.
ohashi 2y ago
Weird that he wouldn't know about a company YC invested in that has an 80B valuation? Yeah... that does seem weird.
- kbenson 2y ago
  That is weird. Although OpenAI isn't even listed in their startup directory, so maybe the investment was done differently, and not through their normal channels. Or maybe they divested their share after a short period. Whether that means pg would have been more likely or less likely to know about it I have no idea.
santoshalper 2y ago
It's not weird that he didn't know about it the day (or week) that it happened. It IS weird that nobody at YC was talking about OpenAI when it was exploding.
josu 2y ago
I don't think this investment is like the rest, there was a clear conflict of interest in the OpenAI investment given that the CEO of YC was also the founder and one of the directors (?) of OpeanAI. And not only Sam, Jessica Livingston is also one of the founders of OpenAI. This is not a comment on whether PG should have been informed or not, I don't know how YC operates.
rootusrootus 2y ago
> that's about a company a day. That doesn't really seem too hard to stay on top of. Might not be able to rattle them off later, but even spending 10 minutes looking into the investment of the day should be able to expose really obvious conflicts of interest.
- kbenson 2y ago
  Eh, it's an average of one a day, but it could be rolled up in a report once a month and there's 20-40 to look through, and depending how hands on he is (he might have delegated some of this work) that may or may not be something he looks closely into. I imagine there's an order of magnitude more companies that apply that don't get funded. Where does he spend his time? Mentoring companies that have been accepted, and if so, all of them or ones that align with some prior interest, or in vetting and looking for unicorns in the applications? I don't know how any of their stuff works, but I'm sure most people can appreciate that the stuff that gets lost between the cracks is the stuff that doesn't come in and get tracked through the normal channels, and an OpenAI investment where one of the main people in the company is heading it might be something that wasn't through normal channels. Maybe that was on purpose so pg didn't see it, or maybe that stuff is mostly handled by someone else. Or maybe pg knew about it and decided to lie about it on twitter. /shrug
deleted 2y ago
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nmfisher 2y ago
PG didn't know that the CEO of YCombinator was investing YC funds into a separate company that he was also CEO of? I'm not sure who that reflects worse on, PG or SA. Conflict of interest aside, it also paints SA's whole "I just love the work, I have no equity in OpenAI" in a completely different light.

whoknowsidont 2y ago

>Is it? Yes.

ohashi 2y ago

Weird that he wouldn't know about a company YC invested in that has an 80B valuation? Yeah... that does seem weird.

kbenson 2y ago
That is weird. Although OpenAI isn't even listed in their startup directory, so maybe the investment was done differently, and not through their normal channels. Or maybe they divested their share after a short period. Whether that means pg would have been more likely or less likely to know about it I have no idea.

santoshalper 2y ago

It's not weird that he didn't know about it the day (or week) that it happened. It IS weird that nobody at YC was talking about OpenAI when it was exploding.

josu 2y ago

I don't think this investment is like the rest, there was a clear conflict of interest in the OpenAI investment given that the CEO of YC was also the founder and one of the directors (?) of OpeanAI. And not only Sam, Jessica Livingston is also one of the founders of OpenAI. This is not a comment on whether PG should have been informed or not, I don't know how YC operates.

rootusrootus 2y ago

> that's about a company a day. That doesn't really seem too hard to stay on top of. Might not be able to rattle them off later, but even spending 10 minutes looking into the investment of the day should be able to expose really obvious conflicts of interest.

kbenson 2y ago
Eh, it's an average of one a day, but it could be rolled up in a report once a month and there's 20-40 to look through, and depending how hands on he is (he might have delegated some of this work) that may or may not be something he looks closely into. I imagine there's an order of magnitude more companies that apply that don't get funded. Where does he spend his time? Mentoring companies that have been accepted, and if so, all of them or ones that align with some prior interest, or in vetting and looking for unicorns in the applications? I don't know how any of their stuff works, but I'm sure most people can appreciate that the stuff that gets lost between the cracks is the stuff that doesn't come in and get tracked through the normal channels, and an OpenAI investment where one of the main people in the company is heading it might be something that wasn't through normal channels. Maybe that was on purpose so pg didn't see it, or maybe that stuff is mostly handled by someone else. Or maybe pg knew about it and decided to lie about it on twitter. /shrug

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nmfisher 2y ago

PG didn't know that the CEO of YCombinator was investing YC funds into a separate company that he was also CEO of? I'm not sure who that reflects worse on, PG or SA. Conflict of interest aside, it also paints SA's whole "I just love the work, I have no equity in OpenAI" in a completely different light.