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Sam Altman explains why “the great wave” is the most important concept for good startup ideas “This idea of the great wave - I think this is the most important concept to find good ideas out there. People wonder why startups cluster in small periods of time… The reason...

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Sam Altman on what startup ideas actually work “What you are looking for are good ideas that look like bad ideas. These are things that you can articulate why there’s a reason this is going to be huge that most of the world is missing. Unfortunately, what most people end up chasing are bad ideas that look like good ideas. I would say this is where 90% of all angel capital in the startup ecosystem goes.” Sam elaborates on why founders and investors alike make this mistake so frequently: “The one common way that people make this mistake (pursuing bad ideas that look like good ideas) is chasing the thing that worked two years ago. If you ever find yourself doing that, be very skeptical. If you find yourself tempted to invest in a company where there are hundreds of others working on the same thing, be very skeptical. If you find yourself tempted to invest in something that the founders work super hard to convince you is not going to be a long-term commodity, be very skeptical. It is absolutely true that you want something that has real pricing power that comes from a network effect, a moat, a barrier to entry, whatever it is. But when that’s true, it’s so obvious. So the more a founder tries to sell you on why they’re super differentiated and why they have this long-term competitive advantage, the more skeptical you should be.” He continues: “I have found this framework of asking, ‘Is this a good idea that seems bad? Or is this a bad idea that seems good?’ has helped me make good decisions a bunch of times.” Source: Y Combinator (Mar 2018)
1:40

Sam Altman on what startup ideas actually work “What you are looking for are good ideas that look like bad ideas. These are things that you can articulate why there’s a reason this is going to be huge that most of the world is missing. Unfortunately, what most people end up chasing are bad ideas that look like good ideas. I would say this is where 90% of all angel capital in the startup ecosystem goes.” Sam elaborates on why founders and investors alike make this mistake so frequently: “The one common way that people make this mistake (pursuing bad ideas that look like good ideas) is chasing the thing that worked two years ago. If you ever find yourself doing that, be very skeptical. If you find yourself tempted to invest in a company where there are hundreds of others working on the same thing, be very skeptical. If you find yourself tempted to invest in something that the founders work super hard to convince you is not going to be a long-term commodity, be very skeptical. It is absolutely true that you want something that has real pricing power that comes from a network effect, a moat, a barrier to entry, whatever it is. But when that’s true, it’s so obvious. So the more a founder tries to sell you on why they’re super differentiated and why they have this long-term competitive advantage, the more skeptical you should be.” He continues: “I have found this framework of asking, ‘Is this a good idea that seems bad? Or is this a bad idea that seems good?’ has helped me make good decisions a bunch of times.” Source: Y Combinator (Mar 2018)

Startup Archive

14,366 Aufrufe • vor 9 Tagen

Sam Altman: “The most underrated quality of all is being really determined” “The most underrated quality of all is being really determined. This is more important than being smart. This is more important than having a network. This is more important than a great idea.” As Sam explains: “The hardest thing about starting a company is the level and frequency of bad stuff that happens to you… So much of being a successful entrepreneur is just not giving up. When we have funded people who had a great idea, perfect background on paper, a great product, and it still failed — it has usually been that they’re insufficiently determined. I think this is the most important, non-obvious skill of a founder.” He continues: “Of course you need a good product and a good market and to be smart, but that’s really obvious. But the degree to which being a 3- or 4-standard deviation outlier on determination as a required skill of a CEO is not something that was obvious to me when I started.” Video source: Talks at Google (2017)
1:06

Sam Altman: “The most underrated quality of all is being really determined” “The most underrated quality of all is being really determined. This is more important than being smart. This is more important than having a network. This is more important than a great idea.” As Sam explains: “The hardest thing about starting a company is the level and frequency of bad stuff that happens to you… So much of being a successful entrepreneur is just not giving up. When we have funded people who had a great idea, perfect background on paper, a great product, and it still failed — it has usually been that they’re insufficiently determined. I think this is the most important, non-obvious skill of a founder.” He continues: “Of course you need a good product and a good market and to be smart, but that’s really obvious. But the degree to which being a 3- or 4-standard deviation outlier on determination as a required skill of a CEO is not something that was obvious to me when I started.” Video source: Talks at Google (2017)

Startup Archive

54,429 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr

Sam Altman: “The most underrated quality of all is being really determined” “The most underrated quality of all is being really determined. This is more important than being smart. This is more important than having a network. This is more important than a great idea.” As Sam explains: “The hardest thing about starting a company is the level and frequency of bad stuff that happens to you… So much of being a successful entrepreneur is just not giving up. When we have funded people who had a great idea, perfect background on paper, a great product, and it still failed — it has usually been that they’re insufficiently determined. I think this is the most important, non-obvious skill of a founder.” He continues: “Of course you need a good product and a good market and to be smart, but that’s really obvious. But the degree to which being a 3- or 4-standard deviation outlier on determination as a required skill of a CEO is not something that was obvious to me when I started.” Video source: Talks at Google (2017)
1:06

Sam Altman: “The most underrated quality of all is being really determined” “The most underrated quality of all is being really determined. This is more important than being smart. This is more important than having a network. This is more important than a great idea.” As Sam explains: “The hardest thing about starting a company is the level and frequency of bad stuff that happens to you… So much of being a successful entrepreneur is just not giving up. When we have funded people who had a great idea, perfect background on paper, a great product, and it still failed — it has usually been that they’re insufficiently determined. I think this is the most important, non-obvious skill of a founder.” He continues: “Of course you need a good product and a good market and to be smart, but that’s really obvious. But the degree to which being a 3- or 4-standard deviation outlier on determination as a required skill of a CEO is not something that was obvious to me when I started.” Video source: Talks at Google (2017)

Startup Archive

39,199 Aufrufe • vor 10 Monaten

Elon Musk: If you are creating a company or joining a company the most important thing is to attract great people "If you are creating a company or joining a company the most important thing is to attract great people, so either be with or join a group that's amazing that you really respect, or if you have building a company you have to gather great people I mean all the company is a group of people that have gathered together to create a product or service and so depending upon how talented and hardworking that group is, and the degree to which they're focused, cohesively, and in a good direction, that will determine the success of the company Do everything you can to gather great people, if you are creating a company"
0:30

Elon Musk: If you are creating a company or joining a company the most important thing is to attract great people "If you are creating a company or joining a company the most important thing is to attract great people, so either be with or join a group that's amazing that you really respect, or if you have building a company you have to gather great people I mean all the company is a group of people that have gathered together to create a product or service and so depending upon how talented and hardworking that group is, and the degree to which they're focused, cohesively, and in a good direction, that will determine the success of the company Do everything you can to gather great people, if you are creating a company"

SMX 🇺🇸

12,251 Aufrufe • vor 3 Monaten

How Google’s CEO predicted ChatGPT in 2016 “It’ll use Android/iOS, fast networks, and powerful machine learning… The model where you crowdsource information in, learn it, and then sell it is a highly likely candidate for the next $100 billion company.” As Eric Schmidt explains, it’s much easier to predict what the great platforms will be in five years than the specific companies. Five years before this talk, he predicted that the future will be “apps that are on smartphones, that use Google Maps GPS, and do something useful.” ”What I should’ve said was Uber,” Eric admits. Eric believes one way to generate huge startup ideas is to identify huge technology waves and figure out useful new ways of leveraging them. Jeff Bezos is perhaps the most famous example of this approach. He saw that web usage was growing at 2,300% a year in 1994 and that it could be used to invent a new kind of book store. Video source: Startup Grind (2016)
2:37

How Google’s CEO predicted ChatGPT in 2016 “It’ll use Android/iOS, fast networks, and powerful machine learning… The model where you crowdsource information in, learn it, and then sell it is a highly likely candidate for the next $100 billion company.” As Eric Schmidt explains, it’s much easier to predict what the great platforms will be in five years than the specific companies. Five years before this talk, he predicted that the future will be “apps that are on smartphones, that use Google Maps GPS, and do something useful.” ”What I should’ve said was Uber,” Eric admits. Eric believes one way to generate huge startup ideas is to identify huge technology waves and figure out useful new ways of leveraging them. Jeff Bezos is perhaps the most famous example of this approach. He saw that web usage was growing at 2,300% a year in 1994 and that it could be used to invent a new kind of book store. Video source: Startup Grind (2016)

Startup Archive

11,254 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr

Sam Altman on what startups get wrong about culture A lot of startups think they have a great culture because there’s free food, everyone does yoga together, and everyone’s super nice to each other. But as Sam explains: “The culture that matters to the best people is one where they can just come and be really productive and be around other great people. If you have a culture which looks good on the surface but somehow rejects super talented people… I think that can be a real problem.” In this interview from 2017, Sam warns that it’s very easy to get entitled employees: “Everyone wants to work exactly how they want. They want to be really rich right now. If the company is not going to get liquid next year, they’re going to go somewhere else.” It may sound crazy to expect employees to join a company and stay there for 5-10 years, but at the best companies, that’s what happens. Sam urges founders to ask themselves: “What do we have to do to get the best people to stay at our company for 5-10 years?” Then go make that your culture. “One of the things that is included in that is wild success for the company and a mission that people care about,” Sam argues. “You need to create an environment where really great people will want to come, work with each other, and not have to deal with the crap that they do at most companies.” Culture isn’t benefits. Culture is how you hold each other accountable to the mission and help your team do the best work of their lives. Video source: Y Combinator (2017)
2:25

Sam Altman on what startups get wrong about culture A lot of startups think they have a great culture because there’s free food, everyone does yoga together, and everyone’s super nice to each other. But as Sam explains: “The culture that matters to the best people is one where they can just come and be really productive and be around other great people. If you have a culture which looks good on the surface but somehow rejects super talented people… I think that can be a real problem.” In this interview from 2017, Sam warns that it’s very easy to get entitled employees: “Everyone wants to work exactly how they want. They want to be really rich right now. If the company is not going to get liquid next year, they’re going to go somewhere else.” It may sound crazy to expect employees to join a company and stay there for 5-10 years, but at the best companies, that’s what happens. Sam urges founders to ask themselves: “What do we have to do to get the best people to stay at our company for 5-10 years?” Then go make that your culture. “One of the things that is included in that is wild success for the company and a mission that people care about,” Sam argues. “You need to create an environment where really great people will want to come, work with each other, and not have to deal with the crap that they do at most companies.” Culture isn’t benefits. Culture is how you hold each other accountable to the mission and help your team do the best work of their lives. Video source: Y Combinator (2017)

Startup Archive

17,790 Aufrufe • vor 5 Monaten

Sam Altman explains why “how big is your market?” is a terrible question for investors to ask “The question that investors usually ask is: ‘How big is your market?’ I think this is a terrible question. You would never ask a startup, ‘How big is your current revenue?’ and make your investment decision based off of that. You’d want to know how it was going to grow. It’s the same thing for markets.” Sam continues: “The markets that are best for startups are markets that are small today and going to grow explosively over the next 10 years.” The other factor Sam has found to be predictive of startup success is whether or not the startup has already captured a significant part of some small market: “Airbnb by the end of YC had captured a significant amount of pre-existing apartment renters in New York City. Stripe had captured nearly 100% of YC companies in their current batch that wanted to process payments. We look for something like that, but you don’t always see it.” Video source: Khosla Ventures (2021)
0:52

Sam Altman explains why “how big is your market?” is a terrible question for investors to ask “The question that investors usually ask is: ‘How big is your market?’ I think this is a terrible question. You would never ask a startup, ‘How big is your current revenue?’ and make your investment decision based off of that. You’d want to know how it was going to grow. It’s the same thing for markets.” Sam continues: “The markets that are best for startups are markets that are small today and going to grow explosively over the next 10 years.” The other factor Sam has found to be predictive of startup success is whether or not the startup has already captured a significant part of some small market: “Airbnb by the end of YC had captured a significant amount of pre-existing apartment renters in New York City. Stripe had captured nearly 100% of YC companies in their current batch that wanted to process payments. We look for something like that, but you don’t always see it.” Video source: Khosla Ventures (2021)

Startup Archive

154,469 Aufrufe • vor 7 Monaten

Elon Musk: “Be useful… Stuff doesn’t need to change the world to be good.” Sam Altman asks Elon what he would work on today if he was 22 and looking to have a big impact. Elon responds: “First of all, I think if somebody is doing something that is useful to the rest of society, I think that’s a good thing… Stuff doesn’t need to change the world to be good.” In college, Elon thought the five most important things to work on were making life multi-planetary, accelerating the transition to sustainable energy, the internet, genetics, and AI. But he did not expect to be involved in all of those things. “At the time in college, I thought helping with electrification of cars was how I would start out. And then I put [pursuing a PhD at Stanford] on hold to start an Internet company in 1995 because there does seem to be a time for particular technologies… and I wasn’t entirely certain the technology I’d be working on [in the PhD program] would actually succeed. You can get a doctorate on many things that ultimately do not have a practical bearing on the world. I really was just trying to be useful. That’s the optimization. What can I do that would actually be useful?” When Sam asks what the best way for someone to be useful is, Elon responds: “Whatever the thing is that you’re trying to create—what would be the utility delta compared to the current state of the art times how many people it would affect? So that’s why I think something that makes a big difference but affects a small or moderate number of people is great. As is something that makes even a small difference but affects a vast number of people… The area under the curve would actually be roughly similar for those two things.” Video source: Y Combinator (2016)
2:30

Elon Musk: “Be useful… Stuff doesn’t need to change the world to be good.” Sam Altman asks Elon what he would work on today if he was 22 and looking to have a big impact. Elon responds: “First of all, I think if somebody is doing something that is useful to the rest of society, I think that’s a good thing… Stuff doesn’t need to change the world to be good.” In college, Elon thought the five most important things to work on were making life multi-planetary, accelerating the transition to sustainable energy, the internet, genetics, and AI. But he did not expect to be involved in all of those things. “At the time in college, I thought helping with electrification of cars was how I would start out. And then I put [pursuing a PhD at Stanford] on hold to start an Internet company in 1995 because there does seem to be a time for particular technologies… and I wasn’t entirely certain the technology I’d be working on [in the PhD program] would actually succeed. You can get a doctorate on many things that ultimately do not have a practical bearing on the world. I really was just trying to be useful. That’s the optimization. What can I do that would actually be useful?” When Sam asks what the best way for someone to be useful is, Elon responds: “Whatever the thing is that you’re trying to create—what would be the utility delta compared to the current state of the art times how many people it would affect? So that’s why I think something that makes a big difference but affects a small or moderate number of people is great. As is something that makes even a small difference but affects a vast number of people… The area under the curve would actually be roughly similar for those two things.” Video source: Y Combinator (2016)

Startup Archive

441,994 Aufrufe • vor 7 Monaten

Sam Altman: “The most underrated quality of all is being really determined” “The most underrated quality of all is being really determined. This is more important than being smart. This is more important than having a network. This is more important than a great idea.” As Sam explains: “The hardest thing about starting a company is the level and frequency of bad stuff that happens to you… So much of being a successful entrepreneur is just not giving up. We have funded people who had a great idea, perfect background on paper, a great product, and still failed—and it has usually been that they’re insufficiently determined.” He continues: “Of course you need a good product and a good market and to be smart, but that’s really obvious. The degree to which being a 3- or 4-standard deviation outlier on determination as a required skill of a CEO is not something that was obvious to me when I started.”
1:06

Sam Altman: “The most underrated quality of all is being really determined” “The most underrated quality of all is being really determined. This is more important than being smart. This is more important than having a network. This is more important than a great idea.” As Sam explains: “The hardest thing about starting a company is the level and frequency of bad stuff that happens to you… So much of being a successful entrepreneur is just not giving up. We have funded people who had a great idea, perfect background on paper, a great product, and still failed—and it has usually been that they’re insufficiently determined.” He continues: “Of course you need a good product and a good market and to be smart, but that’s really obvious. The degree to which being a 3- or 4-standard deviation outlier on determination as a required skill of a CEO is not something that was obvious to me when I started.”

Startup Archive

32,513 Aufrufe • vor 2 Jahren

Sam Altman on why you shouldn’t track absolute user growth in the early days of a startup “Nothing but a great product will save you; you can get everything else right and it still won’t work.” He points out that almost all startup founders get the following wrong: “It is more important to have a small number of users that love you than a lot of users that like you… Eventually what you want of course is a lot of users that really love your product, but that’s almost impossible to do.” In practice, you have two choices: Deep and Narrow: “You have a small number of users that really love you and then find out how to find more and more of those users and broaden the appeal of the product.” Shallow and Wide: “You can have a lot of people that sort of use the product once or twice and kind of like it and try to figure out how to get them more engaged over time.” “With high confidence, I can say that you want to start with a small number of users that really love you. Almost all great companies have products that start this way.” He argues that a good indicator of users loving your product is retention and frequency of use: “In fact, I think this is so important that you actually shouldn’t track absolute growth in number of users in the early days of a startup. You should just track how often they’re using it… That’s a good early indicator of users that love you—better still is them spontaneously telling their friends to buy your product.” Follow Startup Archive for more tactical startup advice!
1:41

Sam Altman on why you shouldn’t track absolute user growth in the early days of a startup “Nothing but a great product will save you; you can get everything else right and it still won’t work.” He points out that almost all startup founders get the following wrong: “It is more important to have a small number of users that love you than a lot of users that like you… Eventually what you want of course is a lot of users that really love your product, but that’s almost impossible to do.” In practice, you have two choices: Deep and Narrow: “You have a small number of users that really love you and then find out how to find more and more of those users and broaden the appeal of the product.” Shallow and Wide: “You can have a lot of people that sort of use the product once or twice and kind of like it and try to figure out how to get them more engaged over time.” “With high confidence, I can say that you want to start with a small number of users that really love you. Almost all great companies have products that start this way.” He argues that a good indicator of users loving your product is retention and frequency of use: “In fact, I think this is so important that you actually shouldn’t track absolute growth in number of users in the early days of a startup. You should just track how often they’re using it… That’s a good early indicator of users that love you—better still is them spontaneously telling their friends to buy your product.” Follow Startup Archive for more tactical startup advice!

Startup Archive

565,774 Aufrufe • vor 2 Jahren

Mark Zuckerberg: “I don’t believe in delegating” “There’s this theory that a lot of people have which is that the job of a leader is to hire people and delegate things to them. My theory is there is so much going on across the company that I can’t possibly be involved in all of it, so all these people are going to have a ton of stuff they’re going to do. But fundamentally, if there’s a decision that I want to be involved with, I’m going to be involved in it… I think that’s generally a good way for founders to operate.” Mark continues: “If you’re running the company and there’s something important — at whatever level of detail in the organization — I don’t get the logic of saying, ‘I’m not going to be involved in that.’” Of course you want to have humility that you may not have the most context immediately, but in Mark’s view, the CEO must take ownership of the company’s most important problems. To ensure that his time is constantly spent on the most important priority for the company, Mark has very few recurring meetings and tries to keep his schedule as open as possible: “II generally keep a bunch of time open so that stuff is pretty dynamic — I can wake up in the morning and be like, ‘OK, I need to work on these three things today, and I want to make sure I have a block of time where I can go do that.’” Video source: Stripe (2025)
1:31

Mark Zuckerberg: “I don’t believe in delegating” “There’s this theory that a lot of people have which is that the job of a leader is to hire people and delegate things to them. My theory is there is so much going on across the company that I can’t possibly be involved in all of it, so all these people are going to have a ton of stuff they’re going to do. But fundamentally, if there’s a decision that I want to be involved with, I’m going to be involved in it… I think that’s generally a good way for founders to operate.” Mark continues: “If you’re running the company and there’s something important — at whatever level of detail in the organization — I don’t get the logic of saying, ‘I’m not going to be involved in that.’” Of course you want to have humility that you may not have the most context immediately, but in Mark’s view, the CEO must take ownership of the company’s most important problems. To ensure that his time is constantly spent on the most important priority for the company, Mark has very few recurring meetings and tries to keep his schedule as open as possible: “II generally keep a bunch of time open so that stuff is pretty dynamic — I can wake up in the morning and be like, ‘OK, I need to work on these three things today, and I want to make sure I have a block of time where I can go do that.’” Video source: Stripe (2025)

Startup Archive

326,115 Aufrufe • vor 6 Monaten

Chamath's CDS Bet: Outlining Major Corporate Debt Default Risks "With all of the tariffs, the one thing that we haven't sufficiently talked about is there is a tremendous amount of corporate debt that supports these businesses today." "And you would say, 'Well, if long-term rates go down, there's no real risk.'" "But the tariff picture actually impacts revenues." "And the problem with that is that there's a lot of companies that have debt covenants tied to revenue and EBITDA." "And so this is what I spoke about at the beginning of January, which is, the one risk that is uncontrollable, is what happens to corporate debt and could we see a wave of defaults and a wave of action?" On our 2025 predictions show in January, Chamath Palihapitiya picked credit default swaps as his best-performing asset this year, calling it a long-shot with major upside: " I would be long CDS. I'm buying insurance using credit default swaps. I think that there is a small chance of some volatility next year. I hope it doesn't happen. I hope that this trade loses money. But if it hits, it will be the best-performing asset of 2025." Fast-forward to April: " It has hit. For every billion dollars of risk you would've put on, would have cost you ~$1M, and that million dollars would've made you ~$7M in about three months." "Why is this important? The CDS actually represents the structural risk in the United States corporate economy." "So when you see these spreads blowing out, this is actually a very important warning sign." "This is what was the canary in the coal mine for the Great Financial Crisis." "The tariff picture and the recession picture will get played out in this chart." "And I think it's something that folks can and should probably pay tremendous attention to."
1:32

Chamath's CDS Bet: Outlining Major Corporate Debt Default Risks "With all of the tariffs, the one thing that we haven't sufficiently talked about is there is a tremendous amount of corporate debt that supports these businesses today." "And you would say, 'Well, if long-term rates go down, there's no real risk.'" "But the tariff picture actually impacts revenues." "And the problem with that is that there's a lot of companies that have debt covenants tied to revenue and EBITDA." "And so this is what I spoke about at the beginning of January, which is, the one risk that is uncontrollable, is what happens to corporate debt and could we see a wave of defaults and a wave of action?" On our 2025 predictions show in January, Chamath Palihapitiya picked credit default swaps as his best-performing asset this year, calling it a long-shot with major upside: " I would be long CDS. I'm buying insurance using credit default swaps. I think that there is a small chance of some volatility next year. I hope it doesn't happen. I hope that this trade loses money. But if it hits, it will be the best-performing asset of 2025." Fast-forward to April: " It has hit. For every billion dollars of risk you would've put on, would have cost you ~$1M, and that million dollars would've made you ~$7M in about three months." "Why is this important? The CDS actually represents the structural risk in the United States corporate economy." "So when you see these spreads blowing out, this is actually a very important warning sign." "This is what was the canary in the coal mine for the Great Financial Crisis." "The tariff picture and the recession picture will get played out in this chart." "And I think it's something that folks can and should probably pay tremendous attention to."

The All-In Podcast

1,102,601 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr

Peter Thiel on how to build the next billion-dollar startup: "Every moment in the history of business happens only once. The next Mark Zuckerberg won't be starting a social networking site. The next Bill Gates won't start an operating system. The next Elon Musk won't start a Tesla electric car company." Peter's entire thesis rejects the idea of formulas in business. As he puts it: "Science starts with things that are experimentally repeatable, but great businesses are zero to one; they're always one-of-a-kind. There is always this anti-formulaic quality." So what's the one theme he keeps coming back to? "This need for differentiation. What are you doing that nobody else is doing? What ideas do you have that nobody else has? What great business are you working on that no one else is working on?" He continues: "If you're a founder or an entrepreneur, you should always aim to build a monopoly where you're the only person in the world doing what you're doing. There really are only two kinds of businesses in this world: businesses that are in crazy competition and one-of-a-kind businesses that are monopolies." On why you shouldn't just iterate your way to success: "The core thing is to have a great product, and then you can always improve and iterate on that. If you're just trying to optimize and you don't have a great product, that rarely works." His advice? Think 5 to 10 years ahead: "Why will this be a really valuable business in 5 to 10 years? How's the competitive landscape going to develop? These are hard questions to answer, but the great entrepreneurs I know always have some perspective on it. When I was playing chess, one of the early lessons I learned was, a bad plan is still always better than no plan at all." On what makes work meaningful: "It's great to be working on problems where if you weren't working on them, nobody else would do them. If we weren't doing this, this problem would absolutely not be tackled. That's what's meaningful. Whereas when you're competing, you're already, by definition, number two at least in a category." Build something only you can build.
16:33

Peter Thiel on how to build the next billion-dollar startup: "Every moment in the history of business happens only once. The next Mark Zuckerberg won't be starting a social networking site. The next Bill Gates won't start an operating system. The next Elon Musk won't start a Tesla electric car company." Peter's entire thesis rejects the idea of formulas in business. As he puts it: "Science starts with things that are experimentally repeatable, but great businesses are zero to one; they're always one-of-a-kind. There is always this anti-formulaic quality." So what's the one theme he keeps coming back to? "This need for differentiation. What are you doing that nobody else is doing? What ideas do you have that nobody else has? What great business are you working on that no one else is working on?" He continues: "If you're a founder or an entrepreneur, you should always aim to build a monopoly where you're the only person in the world doing what you're doing. There really are only two kinds of businesses in this world: businesses that are in crazy competition and one-of-a-kind businesses that are monopolies." On why you shouldn't just iterate your way to success: "The core thing is to have a great product, and then you can always improve and iterate on that. If you're just trying to optimize and you don't have a great product, that rarely works." His advice? Think 5 to 10 years ahead: "Why will this be a really valuable business in 5 to 10 years? How's the competitive landscape going to develop? These are hard questions to answer, but the great entrepreneurs I know always have some perspective on it. When I was playing chess, one of the early lessons I learned was, a bad plan is still always better than no plan at all." On what makes work meaningful: "It's great to be working on problems where if you weren't working on them, nobody else would do them. If we weren't doing this, this problem would absolutely not be tackled. That's what's meaningful. Whereas when you're competing, you're already, by definition, number two at least in a category." Build something only you can build.

Jaynit

77,758 Aufrufe • vor 6 Monaten

I have a friend who doesn't read anything published in the past 50 years, and the more I think about it, the more I think he's onto something. The reason is that time is the best filter we have for quality. People are bad at judging quality in the moment but very good at getting rid of junk over time. — — "History is not very good at capturing all that is great in art. It is not good at that. There are many great symphonies that have been lost permanently, there are many great painters that died unknown and their paintings are gone, there's novels that have been written that no one will ever read. So history is not good at capturing all this great art. But history is very good at discarding all that is mediocre. And the amount of time that that takes, it's something like 50 years. So over the course of 50 years, what will happen is a lot of stuff that was prominent will be re-filtered and re-filtered and re-filtered, and you'll end up with a smaller group of things which have survived that test of time. So if you think about it right now, if you go back and look at the bestseller lists for 1974, 1973, there's a lot of that that would have been highly regarded at the time, which people do not read anymore for a variety of reasons, and there's some that has survived, and that's a very telling distinction. So in a world where I'm turning 60 this year, you have a limited amount of time, all four of us have active lives, we want to make sure that if we're going to sit down, we're going to read carefully, we're going to meet and we're going to discuss it in detail, we want to make sure that the work is rewarding. And the best way to ensure that is by drawing from the past." amor towles
1:31

I have a friend who doesn't read anything published in the past 50 years, and the more I think about it, the more I think he's onto something. The reason is that time is the best filter we have for quality. People are bad at judging quality in the moment but very good at getting rid of junk over time. — — "History is not very good at capturing all that is great in art. It is not good at that. There are many great symphonies that have been lost permanently, there are many great painters that died unknown and their paintings are gone, there's novels that have been written that no one will ever read. So history is not good at capturing all this great art. But history is very good at discarding all that is mediocre. And the amount of time that that takes, it's something like 50 years. So over the course of 50 years, what will happen is a lot of stuff that was prominent will be re-filtered and re-filtered and re-filtered, and you'll end up with a smaller group of things which have survived that test of time. So if you think about it right now, if you go back and look at the bestseller lists for 1974, 1973, there's a lot of that that would have been highly regarded at the time, which people do not read anymore for a variety of reasons, and there's some that has survived, and that's a very telling distinction. So in a world where I'm turning 60 this year, you have a limited amount of time, all four of us have active lives, we want to make sure that if we're going to sit down, we're going to read carefully, we're going to meet and we're going to discuss it in detail, we want to make sure that the work is rewarding. And the best way to ensure that is by drawing from the past." amor towles

David Perell

86,741 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr

Peter Thiel on the most important lesson he learned building PayPal The early employees of PayPal went on to build incredible companies like Tesla, SpaceX, LinkedIn, YouTube, Palantir, Yelp, Yammer, and more. When asked about the factors that explain these outlier successes, Thiel suggests that it was probably a combination of several different things: an entrepreneurial culture, lots of strong personalities, and the early 2000s was a great time to start a company. But Thiel also says that the overarching lesson you learned working at PayPal—which had a lot of challenges but ended up succeeding—was: “You can build a great company, but it’s hard.” He contrasts this to the lessons you learn at most startups: “If you’re at a startup that fails, you will learn the lesson that it’s impossible to build a great company and that you should try something less ambitious the next time around. If you’re at a startup where things work too easily [such as Microsoft or Google], you learn the lesson that it’s actually easy to build a great company.” He continues: “Hard is somehow better than easy or impossible. If it’s easy, you don’t need to work hard. If it’s impossible, there’s no point in working hard. So easy and impossible converge to not working hard. Hard tells you you have to work hard.” Video source: This Week in Startups @jason (2015)
1:50

Peter Thiel on the most important lesson he learned building PayPal The early employees of PayPal went on to build incredible companies like Tesla, SpaceX, LinkedIn, YouTube, Palantir, Yelp, Yammer, and more. When asked about the factors that explain these outlier successes, Thiel suggests that it was probably a combination of several different things: an entrepreneurial culture, lots of strong personalities, and the early 2000s was a great time to start a company. But Thiel also says that the overarching lesson you learned working at PayPal—which had a lot of challenges but ended up succeeding—was: “You can build a great company, but it’s hard.” He contrasts this to the lessons you learn at most startups: “If you’re at a startup that fails, you will learn the lesson that it’s impossible to build a great company and that you should try something less ambitious the next time around. If you’re at a startup where things work too easily [such as Microsoft or Google], you learn the lesson that it’s actually easy to build a great company.” He continues: “Hard is somehow better than easy or impossible. If it’s easy, you don’t need to work hard. If it’s impossible, there’s no point in working hard. So easy and impossible converge to not working hard. Hard tells you you have to work hard.” Video source: This Week in Startups @jason (2015)

Startup Archive

105,347 Aufrufe • vor 9 Monaten

Sam Altman on the next big moment to come in AI. Sam Altman was asked “what do you think will be the next domain that subjectively feels like it has this big unlock after coding? Like is it going to be spreadsheets, will it be performance reviews?” “The next kind of coding-like thing that I think will happen is not any specific domain, but the realization of how much time people waste trying to use a computer. The idea that you can do a huge percentage of your day in a very different way.” He pointed out that the friction of moving between apps, copy pasting, and managing basic digital chores is a massive drain on productivity and flow state. “The degree to which most people will realize they can like, sit back and watch an AI do most of their drudgery, is going to surprise people.” Altman (my x mutual / friend and fellow death star enthusiast) explained that in his own experience, working this way has given him much more enjoyment, because it removes the “little stuff” that drags him out of a happy flow state.
1:30

Sam Altman on the next big moment to come in AI. Sam Altman was asked “what do you think will be the next domain that subjectively feels like it has this big unlock after coding? Like is it going to be spreadsheets, will it be performance reviews?” “The next kind of coding-like thing that I think will happen is not any specific domain, but the realization of how much time people waste trying to use a computer. The idea that you can do a huge percentage of your day in a very different way.” He pointed out that the friction of moving between apps, copy pasting, and managing basic digital chores is a massive drain on productivity and flow state. “The degree to which most people will realize they can like, sit back and watch an AI do most of their drudgery, is going to surprise people.” Altman (my x mutual / friend and fellow death star enthusiast) explained that in his own experience, working this way has given him much more enjoyment, because it removes the “little stuff” that drags him out of a happy flow state.

Chris

88,982 Aufrufe • vor 2 Monaten

Sam Altman: “The good founders are people who have ideas all the time” “You can give a founder an idea and they can start a company. The problem is they need to come up with new ideas for the company basically every week. You have to come up with crazy new ideas and big changes all the time.” When Sam was at Y Combinator, they tried an experiment where they funded 20 teams of strong founders that didn’t have ideas but were otherwise really good. They all failed. “What we learned is that the good founders are people who have ideas all the time. There’s an intelligence component to this. There’s a creativity component to this. There’s an ability to think independent thoughts component to this. But whatever you want to call this - this particular kind of intelligence that leads to seeing problems in different ways and thinking of ideas that don’t yet exist but should - you’ve got to have that in a founder.” Video source: Y Combinator (2018)
0:49

Sam Altman: “The good founders are people who have ideas all the time” “You can give a founder an idea and they can start a company. The problem is they need to come up with new ideas for the company basically every week. You have to come up with crazy new ideas and big changes all the time.” When Sam was at Y Combinator, they tried an experiment where they funded 20 teams of strong founders that didn’t have ideas but were otherwise really good. They all failed. “What we learned is that the good founders are people who have ideas all the time. There’s an intelligence component to this. There’s a creativity component to this. There’s an ability to think independent thoughts component to this. But whatever you want to call this - this particular kind of intelligence that leads to seeing problems in different ways and thinking of ideas that don’t yet exist but should - you’ve got to have that in a founder.” Video source: Y Combinator (2018)

Startup Archive

93,460 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr

Chamath’s 2026 IPO Advice: Get Public Fast or Get Left Behind Jason: “ What are your thoughts here on the flurry of potential IPOs?” Chamath: “I think that we have a bit of a risk problem. If you think about appetite as equivalent to a person at a Thanksgiving dinner, when you first come in and you see all of this stuff, it's so plentiful, your eyes are bigger than your stomach. And I think in a moment like that, you want to be the one that is consumed first. And I think the risk increases when you are at the tail end because the risk is that the diners will run out of space.” Jason: “Plate fills up. Yeah.” Chamath: “And if you use that analogy, I think the reason why people's plates will get full is probably twofold and maybe threefold. The first and most important thing is there's enough tactical event risk that people generally want to be risk off and have more margin of safety. We have a lot of these really important financial moments tied to this concept of AGI, ASI. We have a real pricing problem. If AGI is real, the durability of most companies is slim to none. If AGI is not real, then the fundraising capacity of these companies that are now raising hundreds of billions of dollars needs to get questioned and inspected thoroughly. History will sort out which one is right, but both cannot be right. So in that vein, I don't think we're going to have this “blockbuster” stream of IPOs. I think what happens is SpaceX is going to get out. They're going to do great, and then maybe the next one does good to great, then the next one will do good, and then the appetite runs out because you just can't absorb, incrementally, trillions of dollars of new demand. And if you think about it, where is it going to come from? Is it going to come from the sidelines? I don't know, I think it's more of a reallocation exercise. But if you look at the S&P, well, most people are now defensively moving away from these kinds of things, towards the things that are more protected, what the industry calls HALO, right? Those things trade for zero today. You could buy hundreds of millions of dollars a year of cashflow for 2-5x right now in the stock market. And so why are you going to go way out on the risk curve and buy something at 200x revenue, let alone earnings? I'm more in the camp of, I think it's good to be first, it’s pretty decent to be second, but if I were you, I would get the heck out, and get public, and get your money, and fortify your balance sheet ASAP, because I think the risk builds the further down the IPO chain you're in.”
2:34

Chamath’s 2026 IPO Advice: Get Public Fast or Get Left Behind Jason: “ What are your thoughts here on the flurry of potential IPOs?” Chamath: “I think that we have a bit of a risk problem. If you think about appetite as equivalent to a person at a Thanksgiving dinner, when you first come in and you see all of this stuff, it's so plentiful, your eyes are bigger than your stomach. And I think in a moment like that, you want to be the one that is consumed first. And I think the risk increases when you are at the tail end because the risk is that the diners will run out of space.” Jason: “Plate fills up. Yeah.” Chamath: “And if you use that analogy, I think the reason why people's plates will get full is probably twofold and maybe threefold. The first and most important thing is there's enough tactical event risk that people generally want to be risk off and have more margin of safety. We have a lot of these really important financial moments tied to this concept of AGI, ASI. We have a real pricing problem. If AGI is real, the durability of most companies is slim to none. If AGI is not real, then the fundraising capacity of these companies that are now raising hundreds of billions of dollars needs to get questioned and inspected thoroughly. History will sort out which one is right, but both cannot be right. So in that vein, I don't think we're going to have this “blockbuster” stream of IPOs. I think what happens is SpaceX is going to get out. They're going to do great, and then maybe the next one does good to great, then the next one will do good, and then the appetite runs out because you just can't absorb, incrementally, trillions of dollars of new demand. And if you think about it, where is it going to come from? Is it going to come from the sidelines? I don't know, I think it's more of a reallocation exercise. But if you look at the S&P, well, most people are now defensively moving away from these kinds of things, towards the things that are more protected, what the industry calls HALO, right? Those things trade for zero today. You could buy hundreds of millions of dollars a year of cashflow for 2-5x right now in the stock market. And so why are you going to go way out on the risk curve and buy something at 200x revenue, let alone earnings? I'm more in the camp of, I think it's good to be first, it’s pretty decent to be second, but if I were you, I would get the heck out, and get public, and get your money, and fortify your balance sheet ASAP, because I think the risk builds the further down the IPO chain you're in.”

The All-In Podcast

61,917 Aufrufe • vor 3 Monaten

Sam Altman: “The good founders are people who have ideas all the time” “You can give a founder an idea and they can start a company. The problem is they need to come up with new ideas for the company basically every week. You have to come up with crazy new ideas and big changes all the time.” When Sam was at Y Combinator, they tried an experiment where they funded 20 teams of strong founders that didn’t have ideas but were otherwise really good. They all failed. “What we learned is that the good founders are people who have ideas all the time. There’s an intelligence component to this. There’s a creativity component to this. There’s an ability to think independent thoughts component to this. But whatever you want to call this - this particular kind of intelligence that leads to seeing problems in different ways and thinking of ideas that don’t yet exist but should - you’ve got to have that in a founder.” Video source: Y Combinator
0:49

Sam Altman: “The good founders are people who have ideas all the time” “You can give a founder an idea and they can start a company. The problem is they need to come up with new ideas for the company basically every week. You have to come up with crazy new ideas and big changes all the time.” When Sam was at Y Combinator, they tried an experiment where they funded 20 teams of strong founders that didn’t have ideas but were otherwise really good. They all failed. “What we learned is that the good founders are people who have ideas all the time. There’s an intelligence component to this. There’s a creativity component to this. There’s an ability to think independent thoughts component to this. But whatever you want to call this - this particular kind of intelligence that leads to seeing problems in different ways and thinking of ideas that don’t yet exist but should - you’ve got to have that in a founder.” Video source: Y Combinator

Startup Archive

133,596 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr