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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

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

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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 • 4 months ago

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

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77,268 views • 2 years 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

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133,596 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 (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)

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93,460 views • 1 year 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

Benchmark founder Andy Rachleff on what most founders get wrong about product/market fit “When you’re starting a company, you need to develop a value hypothesis and then a growth hypothesis. The value hypothesis consists of the what, the who, and the how. What are you going to build? For whom is it relevant? And what’s the business model? That’s the how.” Andy believes the core of product market fit is proving the value hypothesis. And the mistake most founders make is iterating on the “what” variable, which he defines as the inflection point in technology you’re building on: “Great technology companies are created by virtue of an entrepreneur recognizing an inflection point in technology that allows them to build a new product.” When Andy was building Wealthfront, this inflection point was brokerage APIs and ETFs. It’s only once you’ve identified an inflection point in technology (the “what”), Andy argues, that you should begin to focus on the “who” (e.g. what’s the market?) and the “how” (e.g. what’s the business model?). “You don’t start with a market and look for problems to which you can find a solution because that’s consensus, leads to mundane outcomes, and certainly doesn’t support venture capital. The great returns in venture capital have all come from people who have tried to do something non-consensus.” The other product/market fit mistake Andy often sees founders make is spending too much money on advertising: “The way that you really know you’ve found [product/market fit] is if you have exponential organic growth - if you have word of mouth. People only recommend things that they love… I’ve seen many entrepreneurs fall in love with the growth they’ve gotten from their advertising and not realized they’re not getting word of mouth.” Video source: Fintech Nexus (2018)

Benchmark founder Andy Rachleff on what most founders get wrong about product/market fit “When you’re starting a company, you need to develop a value hypothesis and then a growth hypothesis. The value hypothesis consists of the what, the who, and the how. What are you going to build? For whom is it relevant? And what’s the business model? That’s the how.” Andy believes the core of product market fit is proving the value hypothesis. And the mistake most founders make is iterating on the “what” variable, which he defines as the inflection point in technology you’re building on: “Great technology companies are created by virtue of an entrepreneur recognizing an inflection point in technology that allows them to build a new product.” When Andy was building Wealthfront, this inflection point was brokerage APIs and ETFs. It’s only once you’ve identified an inflection point in technology (the “what”), Andy argues, that you should begin to focus on the “who” (e.g. what’s the market?) and the “how” (e.g. what’s the business model?). “You don’t start with a market and look for problems to which you can find a solution because that’s consensus, leads to mundane outcomes, and certainly doesn’t support venture capital. The great returns in venture capital have all come from people who have tried to do something non-consensus.” The other product/market fit mistake Andy often sees founders make is spending too much money on advertising: “The way that you really know you’ve found [product/market fit] is if you have exponential organic growth - if you have word of mouth. People only recommend things that they love… I’ve seen many entrepreneurs fall in love with the growth they’ve gotten from their advertising and not realized they’re not getting word of mouth.” Video source: Fintech Nexus (2018)

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16,595 views • 1 year 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

1,434,336 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

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

178,134 views • 7 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

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 • 4 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

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 • 6 months 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 • 17 days 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

84,247 views • 2 years ago

Sam Altman on the importance of agency "You can just do stuff. No one has all the answers. There are no adults in the room that will magically tell you what to do. That was a big unlock in my life." Sam Altman talking with Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan

Sam Altman on the importance of agency "You can just do stuff. No one has all the answers. There are no adults in the room that will magically tell you what to do. That was a big unlock in my life." Sam Altman talking with Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan

Overlap: Business & Tech

126,212 views • 1 year ago

Takeaways from Adora Cheung about Health, Company Building, and being a YC partner: On traits of top Y Combinator founders: 'Witnessing successful founders makes you realize that there are many paths to success, and there's no one way only. You learn to be less judgy.' 'Good founders take setbacks in stride, learn quickly, and move on without letting these setbacks significantly derail their progress.' Resilience and the ability to move quickly are key traits. 'Obsessively talking to users, working smart, and building a great product based on that.' On challenges with the healthcare system ' When you ask a physician for blood tests, they say you are too young, not sick enough, that the insurance will not pay for it, and it's difficult to have a preventative approach.' On hiring for positions you don't understand 'You have to try to do it yourself first. That's the best way to get in the position to judge. If it's something you can't do, get around people who are experts and can teach you.'

Takeaways from Adora Cheung about Health, Company Building, and being a YC partner: On traits of top Y Combinator founders: 'Witnessing successful founders makes you realize that there are many paths to success, and there's no one way only. You learn to be less judgy.' 'Good founders take setbacks in stride, learn quickly, and move on without letting these setbacks significantly derail their progress.' Resilience and the ability to move quickly are key traits. 'Obsessively talking to users, working smart, and building a great product based on that.' On challenges with the healthcare system ' When you ask a physician for blood tests, they say you are too young, not sick enough, that the insurance will not pay for it, and it's difficult to have a preventative approach.' On hiring for positions you don't understand 'You have to try to do it yourself first. That's the best way to get in the position to judge. If it's something you can't do, get around people who are experts and can teach you.'

Kyriakos Eleftheriou

16,187 views • 2 years ago