Loading video...

Video Failed to Load

There was a problem loading this video. This could be due to a temporary network issue or the video might be unavailable.

Sam Altman: “The best founders are generalists all the way through” Sam continues: “Maybe you’re a specialist in a particular technology that you develop… But when you transition from building a product to building a company, you have to specialize in generalization starting that day and never look back.”... show more

Startup Archive

157,597 subscribers

62,327 views • 8 months ago •via X (Twitter)

Anya Rossi• Live Now

Private livecam show

0 Comments

No comments available

Comments from the original post will appear here

Related Videos

Ben Horowitz explains the two things every successful technology startup must do 1. Build a product that improves how some large group of people does something by 10x. “You have to build a transformational product. There is no way to build a great new company without a great product… If you look at the great technology companies, the thing that distinguishes them is the ability to keep coming up with a better way of doing things.” 2. Taking the market. “You can come up with the best product, but if you don’t [take the market], you really don’t have a company. Most technology businesses are network effects businesses. You have to win… If you’re an engineer, what business skills do you need to build a technology company? They’re all around the skills that you need to win the market. How do you out-market, out-sell, and beat the competition?… Do you build a good enough company that you go win?” Video Source: UC Berkeley

Ben Horowitz explains the two things every successful technology startup must do 1. Build a product that improves how some large group of people does something by 10x. “You have to build a transformational product. There is no way to build a great new company without a great product… If you look at the great technology companies, the thing that distinguishes them is the ability to keep coming up with a better way of doing things.” 2. Taking the market. “You can come up with the best product, but if you don’t [take the market], you really don’t have a company. Most technology businesses are network effects businesses. You have to win… If you’re an engineer, what business skills do you need to build a technology company? They’re all around the skills that you need to win the market. How do you out-market, out-sell, and beat the competition?… Do you build a good enough company that you go win?” Video Source: UC Berkeley

Startup Archive

77,268 views • 2 years ago

Ben Horowitz on the two things every successful technology startup must do 1. Build a product that improves how some large group of people does something by 10x. “You have to build a transformational product. There is no way to build a great new company without a great product… If you look at the great technology companies, the thing that distinguishes them is the ability to keep coming up with a better way of doing things.” 2. Taking the market. “You can come up with the best product, but if you don’t [take the market], you really don’t have a company. Most technology businesses are network effects businesses. You have to win… If you’re an engineer, what business skills do you need to build a technology company? They’re all around the skills that you need to win the market. How do you out-market, out-sell, and beat the competition?… Do you build a good enough company that you go win?” Video source: UC Berkeley (2009)

Ben Horowitz on the two things every successful technology startup must do 1. Build a product that improves how some large group of people does something by 10x. “You have to build a transformational product. There is no way to build a great new company without a great product… If you look at the great technology companies, the thing that distinguishes them is the ability to keep coming up with a better way of doing things.” 2. Taking the market. “You can come up with the best product, but if you don’t [take the market], you really don’t have a company. Most technology businesses are network effects businesses. You have to win… If you’re an engineer, what business skills do you need to build a technology company? They’re all around the skills that you need to win the market. How do you out-market, out-sell, and beat the competition?… Do you build a good enough company that you go win?” Video source: UC Berkeley (2009)

Startup Archive

36,753 views • 5 months ago

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)

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 views • 1 year ago

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

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

133,653 views • 1 year ago

Sam Altman: “Most founders get delegation wrong” “People get delegation wrong one way or the other. Every founder knows that as you scale the company, you need to delegate. But they either do way too much or way too little. And it’s actually quite difficult to do it the right balance.” Most founders Sam saw at Y Combinator would delegate too little because they got burned once early on and it took them a long time to trust that delegation can work again. But, as Sam explains, founders can also delegate too much: “Their board member tells them, ‘Hey, you’ve got to delegate. You need these five VPs for these five areas.’ And probably whatever is the area that you think is most important to the business and you enjoy the most, you shouldn’t hire the VP in that area. You should just do it yourself. If you’re a product person and you really love product, don’t hire a VP of product. Keep doing that. Because if you hire a VP of product, you will have never-ending conflict because you both want the same thing. You won’t like the way they do it. They won’t like you’re interfering with them.” Sam continues: “Whatever you think the critical piece of the business is - the one or maybe two most critical pieces - hold on to those yourself. That will also make you better about delegating everything else so that you can focus on what you really want to focus on.” Source: Khosla Ventures (Sep 2021)

Sam Altman: “Most founders get delegation wrong” “People get delegation wrong one way or the other. Every founder knows that as you scale the company, you need to delegate. But they either do way too much or way too little. And it’s actually quite difficult to do it the right balance.” Most founders Sam saw at Y Combinator would delegate too little because they got burned once early on and it took them a long time to trust that delegation can work again. But, as Sam explains, founders can also delegate too much: “Their board member tells them, ‘Hey, you’ve got to delegate. You need these five VPs for these five areas.’ And probably whatever is the area that you think is most important to the business and you enjoy the most, you shouldn’t hire the VP in that area. You should just do it yourself. If you’re a product person and you really love product, don’t hire a VP of product. Keep doing that. Because if you hire a VP of product, you will have never-ending conflict because you both want the same thing. You won’t like the way they do it. They won’t like you’re interfering with them.” Sam continues: “Whatever you think the critical piece of the business is - the one or maybe two most critical pieces - hold on to those yourself. That will also make you better about delegating everything else so that you can focus on what you really want to focus on.” Source: Khosla Ventures (Sep 2021)

Startup Archive

53,471 views • 9 days ago

“I hate white people, shut the f*ck up. You have got a long way to go before you earned the right to say that. When you develop a technology, when you develop a civilization, when you develop something maybe then you can have a little resentment. Until that point be grateful…” -Nick Fuentes

“I hate white people, shut the f*ck up. You have got a long way to go before you earned the right to say that. When you develop a technology, when you develop a civilization, when you develop something maybe then you can have a little resentment. Until that point be grateful…” -Nick Fuentes

Truth Troll Official™️

155,490 views • 10 months ago

Sam Altman warned us: “Everyone thinks you can hire someone to do this." "That fails 100% of the time." A board of directors won't cut it. The secret to building a generational company, according to him? The founder doing this every day:

Sam Altman warned us: “Everyone thinks you can hire someone to do this." "That fails 100% of the time." A board of directors won't cut it. The secret to building a generational company, according to him? The founder doing this every day:

Brandon Arvanaghi

1,434,356 views • 2 years ago

Palmer Luckey: “It doesn’t take that much bravery when you’re young to start a company” “Everyone talks about how scary it is to start a company, but it really depends on where you are in your life. If you are someone with a family and with kids and with a stable job, then that totally makes sense. What I don’t buy - and I always push back on - is this idea that starting a company as a recent college graduate or someone taking a break from college is some kind of crazy, incredible sacrifice…. You don’t have a family to take care of. You don’t have a mortgage. You don’t have a career. You have nothing.” Palmer continues: “I guess dropping out of school, maybe. But if you can get your head past that, then it’s actually pretty easy. Usually what I tell people is - if you’re going to start a company, realize the stakes are lower when you’re young than they will ever be… I don’t think it takes that much bravery when you’re young to start a company. And I think more people should do that and recognize that really they’re a coward for not … You have nowhere to go but up and nothing to waste but time.” Video source: Internet Marketing (2021)

Palmer Luckey: “It doesn’t take that much bravery when you’re young to start a company” “Everyone talks about how scary it is to start a company, but it really depends on where you are in your life. If you are someone with a family and with kids and with a stable job, then that totally makes sense. What I don’t buy - and I always push back on - is this idea that starting a company as a recent college graduate or someone taking a break from college is some kind of crazy, incredible sacrifice…. You don’t have a family to take care of. You don’t have a mortgage. You don’t have a career. You have nothing.” Palmer continues: “I guess dropping out of school, maybe. But if you can get your head past that, then it’s actually pretty easy. Usually what I tell people is - if you’re going to start a company, realize the stakes are lower when you’re young than they will ever be… I don’t think it takes that much bravery when you’re young to start a company. And I think more people should do that and recognize that really they’re a coward for not … You have nowhere to go but up and nothing to waste but time.” Video source: Internet Marketing (2021)

Startup Archive

119,063 views • 10 months ago

The founder of Pinterest on what surprised him the most when starting a company “It can take a really, really long time to build things that are worthwhile.” Ben Silbermann describes just how demoralizing things were in the beginning of building Pinterest: “In March 2010, we launched Pinterest and were at 3,000 accounts. And that wouldn’t have been so bad if we hadn’t started building Pinterest in November 2009. And that wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t left my job to start a company in May 2008.” A lot of people will compare startups to running a marathon, but Ben disagrees: “The part of the analogy that’s right is that it’s long. But it’s actually really different. When I think about my experience, it’s more like going on a roadtrip in a car that doesn’t have very good headlights and you don’t have much gas and you think you’re going to Toledo, but you find out you’re supposed to be in Miami and if you really have to buy gas you might have to buy gas from someone who might just kick you out of your own driver’s seat.” He continues: “That uncertainty and the fact that every single day you’re dealing with a lot of choices and you don’t have perfect information is the lesson for me that was hardest to learn and continues to be a real challenge in doing a startup today.” Source: Y Combinator (Oct 2012)

The founder of Pinterest on what surprised him the most when starting a company “It can take a really, really long time to build things that are worthwhile.” Ben Silbermann describes just how demoralizing things were in the beginning of building Pinterest: “In March 2010, we launched Pinterest and were at 3,000 accounts. And that wouldn’t have been so bad if we hadn’t started building Pinterest in November 2009. And that wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t left my job to start a company in May 2008.” A lot of people will compare startups to running a marathon, but Ben disagrees: “The part of the analogy that’s right is that it’s long. But it’s actually really different. When I think about my experience, it’s more like going on a roadtrip in a car that doesn’t have very good headlights and you don’t have much gas and you think you’re going to Toledo, but you find out you’re supposed to be in Miami and if you really have to buy gas you might have to buy gas from someone who might just kick you out of your own driver’s seat.” He continues: “That uncertainty and the fact that every single day you’re dealing with a lot of choices and you don’t have perfect information is the lesson for me that was hardest to learn and continues to be a real challenge in doing a startup today.” Source: Y Combinator (Oct 2012)

Startup Archive

15,088 views • 6 days ago

Marc Andreessen on product-market fit. “You don’t have a business until you have a product that a lot of people want.” “You can tell because the market’s pulling the product.” “Until you have that, time spent building the business around the product is pointless.” “Best case it’s gonna be a zombie.” “When you have product-market fit, then you build a company around it.” Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 with Business Insider in 2009:

Marc Andreessen on product-market fit. “You don’t have a business until you have a product that a lot of people want.” “You can tell because the market’s pulling the product.” “Until you have that, time spent building the business around the product is pointless.” “Best case it’s gonna be a zombie.” “When you have product-market fit, then you build a company around it.” Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 with Business Insider in 2009:

a16z

178,155 views • 8 months ago

Q: What's the secret to building a great product that grows really fast? Paul Graham explains that the secret to growing really fast is to: "start with a small, intense fire." He uses Apple as an example. They started by selling just 500 Apple I computers. Today Apple is the largest company in the world. It's impossible to make something that a large number of people really want when you're just starting out. So you have to find people who want what you're building A LOT. And that's necessarily going to be a small number at first. But that's ok because that's how almost every giant company gets started. PG continues: "You have to know who those first users are and how you're going to get them. Then you're going to sit down and just have a party with those first few users and focus entirely on them and making them super super happy." Another example he draws upon is a startup in a Y Combinator batch making a new mobile email client. Their beta group had one user: Sam Altman. This startup's goal was to just make Sam happy. Sam uses email a lot on the go, knows all of the other email client options, and is super demanding. So they know that if they build a product that makes Sam happy, odds are it will make lots of other people happy too. "One of the things we tell startups in these extreme cases where they can make just one user happy is to act like a consultant. Act like Sam has hired you to make an email app just for him. All you have to do is make Sam happy--it can say 'Sam Altman' at the top of the screen. That's ok! Just so long as Sam would feel bummed if you stopped working on it. That's the test." Ultimately the secret to building a great product that grows really fast is to build something a small group of people love so much that they'd be really disappointed if you stopped working on it. There's lots of important steps to get right after this, but this is the foundation for growth. It's somewhat counterintuitive, but most of the world's largest companies (e.g. Apple, Facebook, etc.) started by building a product that made a small group of people really happy.

Q: What's the secret to building a great product that grows really fast? Paul Graham explains that the secret to growing really fast is to: "start with a small, intense fire." He uses Apple as an example. They started by selling just 500 Apple I computers. Today Apple is the largest company in the world. It's impossible to make something that a large number of people really want when you're just starting out. So you have to find people who want what you're building A LOT. And that's necessarily going to be a small number at first. But that's ok because that's how almost every giant company gets started. PG continues: "You have to know who those first users are and how you're going to get them. Then you're going to sit down and just have a party with those first few users and focus entirely on them and making them super super happy." Another example he draws upon is a startup in a Y Combinator batch making a new mobile email client. Their beta group had one user: Sam Altman. This startup's goal was to just make Sam happy. Sam uses email a lot on the go, knows all of the other email client options, and is super demanding. So they know that if they build a product that makes Sam happy, odds are it will make lots of other people happy too. "One of the things we tell startups in these extreme cases where they can make just one user happy is to act like a consultant. Act like Sam has hired you to make an email app just for him. All you have to do is make Sam happy--it can say 'Sam Altman' at the top of the screen. That's ok! Just so long as Sam would feel bummed if you stopped working on it. That's the test." Ultimately the secret to building a great product that grows really fast is to build something a small group of people love so much that they'd be really disappointed if you stopped working on it. There's lots of important steps to get right after this, but this is the foundation for growth. It's somewhat counterintuitive, but most of the world's largest companies (e.g. Apple, Facebook, etc.) started by building a product that made a small group of people really happy.

Michael McGuiness

890,425 views • 3 years ago

Sam Altman reveals building Codex was a "crazy kamikaze mission" to beat Claude Code and that most of the best coders he knows now use Codex. "We were way behind Claude Code, and it seemed like a kind of crazy kamikaze mission to try to beat them with a coding app." "The consensus is that this kind of thing never works, and you just move on to the next one. It's a fool's errand to try to win when someone else already has momentum in a particular product category." "But we decided we thought it was really important. We asked a team to do it, and they performed a legitimate, unbelievable, very rare in the history of business thing." "Now it is the product that most of the best coders I know use." "That felt like an impossible thing, but if we hadn't asked the team, hey, we have a really important but extremely hard mission for you, it just wouldn't have happened."

Sam Altman reveals building Codex was a "crazy kamikaze mission" to beat Claude Code and that most of the best coders he knows now use Codex. "We were way behind Claude Code, and it seemed like a kind of crazy kamikaze mission to try to beat them with a coding app." "The consensus is that this kind of thing never works, and you just move on to the next one. It's a fool's errand to try to win when someone else already has momentum in a particular product category." "But we decided we thought it was really important. We asked a team to do it, and they performed a legitimate, unbelievable, very rare in the history of business thing." "Now it is the product that most of the best coders I know use." "That felt like an impossible thing, but if we hadn't asked the team, hey, we have a really important but extremely hard mission for you, it just wouldn't have happened."

Fireside Alpha

1,261,432 views • 29 days ago

A message to Portland, from Sam ❤️ And from all of us, to you, Sam Coffey. Thank you for making Portland your home. Thank you for giving 110% every single day. We wish you nothing but the best in England!

A message to Portland, from Sam ❤️ And from all of us, to you, Sam Coffey. Thank you for making Portland your home. Thank you for giving 110% every single day. We wish you nothing but the best in England!

Portland Thorns FC

35,109 views • 7 months ago

🚨"NEVER TRUST SAM ALTMAN, EVER... HE'S NOT A PERSON, HE'S A BRAND" Mo Gawdat delivers blistering takedown of OpenAI CEO, claiming Altman represents Silicon Valley vapor over substance while comparing OpenAI's profit focus to Google's early mission-driven projects: "Never trust Sam Altman, ever. Sam Altman is not a person. Sam Altman is the creation of a system. California is a place where vapor is worth more than solids. You look at OpenAI's original promise, which was to protect the world from artificial intelligence, to make AI work for humanity, and then you look for actions that support that. And if you don't find any, then it's just a pitch. You could see at OpenAI how all of them, Ilya and Mira, most of the core team left and asked for the company to change its leadership." Mo Gawdat

Mario Nawfal

17,634 views • 8 months ago

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"

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 views • 5 months ago

Sam Altman: “This is probably the best time (maybe ever) to be starting your career” When asked how startup founders should handle a failed venture or pivot, Sam responds: “First of all, I think this is probably the best time — maybe ever — to be starting out your career because you will get to surf the greatest technological wave, maybe ever. And what that means is you can change course many times because you will have this unbelievable tailwind.” He advises founders to not get too hung up on any particular setback or failure — or even just changing your mind if you find something more exciting to go after: “I think this is going to be an unusual time in how much it rewards adaptability and decisive and quick movement. And I would trust that… And not get hung up on the fact that you decided to pivot or something didn’t work because you are just going to be flooded with opportunities for the next few years.” He concludes: “It’s still hard. It still always feels like a setback. But take the time you need to go on vacation, go for a hike, or just stew over it for a little while. But when you get back up, get back up with vigor.” Video source: Harvard Business School (2024)

Sam Altman: “This is probably the best time (maybe ever) to be starting your career” When asked how startup founders should handle a failed venture or pivot, Sam responds: “First of all, I think this is probably the best time — maybe ever — to be starting out your career because you will get to surf the greatest technological wave, maybe ever. And what that means is you can change course many times because you will have this unbelievable tailwind.” He advises founders to not get too hung up on any particular setback or failure — or even just changing your mind if you find something more exciting to go after: “I think this is going to be an unusual time in how much it rewards adaptability and decisive and quick movement. And I would trust that… And not get hung up on the fact that you decided to pivot or something didn’t work because you are just going to be flooded with opportunities for the next few years.” He concludes: “It’s still hard. It still always feels like a setback. But take the time you need to go on vacation, go for a hike, or just stew over it for a little while. But when you get back up, get back up with vigor.” Video source: Harvard Business School (2024)

Startup Archive

69,167 views • 1 year ago

.Naval On Building Products: Join the conversation: "When building a product, you want to take the minimal steps through the idea maze and not hesitate to step back at any point in time."

.Naval On Building Products: Join the conversation: "When building a product, you want to take the minimal steps through the idea maze and not hesitate to step back at any point in time."

Airchat

84,285 views • 2 years ago