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Can someone explain how Sam is able to run so many things at once? I am working on my startup and I barely find time to scroll HN during my toilet breaks.
by protortyp 3y ago
Can someone explain how Sam is able to run so many things at once? I am working on my startup and I barely find time to scroll HN during my toilet breaks.
- ldjkfkdsjnv 3y agohe makes a few high level decisions a week/maybe less. hes never actually on the grind
- xenospn 3y agoMost likely just delegates everything. It’s not possible to actually “run” large operations without effective delegation.
- lumost 3y agolike having a very visible/active chairman of the board.
- whatshisface 3y agoYour jobs are to found the company and Be The Founder, just imagine how many more companies you could found if you had people to do the former. (See also: Elon Musk.)
- csomar 3y agoHe is just the face. He gets paid for bringing attention and creating a forward momentum to the companies. He has access to highly placed individuals too and that’s more important than you building an actual product in our economy.
- LarsDu88 3y agoLets go back to the beginning of YC. You can find a photo of the very first class. In that very first class, you'll see the AirBnb guys, the Twitch guys, the Reddit founders, and Sam frickin Altman. When you have 18 years of connections with virtually every successful YC startup, and happen to run the most disruptive company of the past 15 years, money and influence seeks you out.
- jakderrida 3y agoGood answer. He basically fostered a reputation for having access to the connections you need. Same time, that don't mean he'll entertain any old idea. I thought he was lunatic for taking over at OpenAI and thought their idea was crazy. But he knew better than me.
- chaostheory 3y agoAgree and you have a very reasonable comment, and I’m not sure why others don’t agree. Just one possible correction: the AirBnB guys were about 4 years later than the 1st batch. I don’t think any of them were in the 1st batch with a different startup like the Twitch crew.
- LarsDu88 3y agoMy bad. Yes they weren't in the first batch. But hot damn being in that first batch was pretty big. Being the right place at the right time is incredibly important. Also, to be the specific kind of person to do YC so early on should probably not be undersold either.
- chaostheory 3y agoAgree with you again. It’s not just timing and location either. It’s also your Alma matter in both education and the firms you worked at. If you create a resume for the typically YC member, over 90% of them went to an Ivy League level school and worked at a FAANG, MAGMA or whatever firm has great mindshare or prestige
- 7e 3y agoBeing in the first batch wasn’t being in the right place at the right time. Look at all the failures in that batch. YC succeeded in collecting all the companies that were going to be founded anyway, but were too inexperienced/naive to get real VC money. YC took a big cut of all of them for peanuts. And they exploit those types of founders to this day. It’s a sweatshop wrapped up in a cult of the fruit-fly startup. The odds of success are low, but YC has a share every lottery ticket, so they come out ahead even though most everyone they support fails. Altman realized what a great business that is, so he wisely pivoted away from his failed startup to exploit startups instead.
- panic 3y agoYou’re doing it wrong. You need to get other people to do the actual work while you go out and get yourself involved in more things.
- behnamoh 3y agoFrom "48 Laws of Power": > Law 7: Get Others to Do the Work for You, but Always Take the Credit: Get others to do your work for you. Use their skill, time, and energy to further your ambitions while taking full credit. You’ll be admired for your efficiency.
- musicale 3y agoCan someone explain why a public university is giving money to Sam Altman rather than the other way around? Or is this the primary/hedge-fund part of the university rather than the professional sports organization or the vestigial academic departments?
- tetrazine 3y agoBecause they believe they will turn a profit on the investment (in expectation). Next question
- malfist 3y agoUniversities are not hedge funds
- zitterbewegung 3y agoYea they are prop funds instead.
- dublinben 3y agoThe distinction is less clear these days. What is clear is that they're frequently limited partners pitching in millions for venture funds.
- pixl97 3y agoNo they are an endowment which isn't too much different.
- jgord 3y agoDont the larger universities have vast property holdings and investments they manage ? Smaller universities seem to make a lot on student rental accommodation, at least in places like Australia. Maybe tuition is their side business.
- tnecniv 3y agoThey do. They also own lots of intellectual property and will provide some amount of financial support to startups that grow out of the university commonly. At the end of the day, they have endowments and they want to grow those. Specifically, regarding property, at schools I’ve attended they owned real estate in the city around the campus, not just the campus itself. Part of that is investment and part of it was looking to the future for when they run out of space on the current campus to build new facilities and need to grow the campus We don’t think of pension funds as hedge funds either but they also invest heavily to grow the fund.
- colechristensen 3y agoDo you have the money, connections, trust to hire someone to delegate 90% of the work you’re doing on your startup?
- unsupp0rted 3y agoProbably a work number closer to 100% than to 90%
- vitorgrs 3y agoFor OpenAI, I'm pretty sure Greg that is really managing it most of the times? Sam is more of an investor than anything else.