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Sam Altman for President

blog.ycombinator.com

71–80 of 156 posts

Re: Sam Altman for President

#71
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Congratulations. Succession is hard. Books in the pipeline?

"Books in the pipeline?" An opinion column in a well respected publication has the ability to wield more influence. Books are hit or miss and ephemeral.

I think there are some dead guys who would argue with that ephemerality point.

Re: Sam Altman for President

#73
post #2

I’m very excited about this. YC is the smartest group of people I’ve ever worked with, and I believe that startups are going to be the major driver for innovation and economic growth going forward. I was thinking this morning about what it was like to start a startup in early 2005 and how much it’s changed now. PG has done a remarkable amount to improve the startup ecosystem for founders—in fact, it’s hard to think o…

ur a bitch

bitch

Re: Sam Altman for President

#74
post #23

Wow, awesome news! I've noticed a lot more Sam Altman posts on HN recently, and I have to say I'm a fan, at least of his writing. What does this mean for your role at YCombinator, PG? Will you still be spending most of your time helping out with companies there, or are you going to work on other projects?

I'm going to continue doing office hours with startups in future batches. And since office hours are the main way founders interact with me, YC should feel the same to companies we fund. It will feel a lot different to me though. Not so much because I'll have more time as more attention to spare. For years now YC has been the thing in the top of my mind. That has made it hard to write essays. Now I'll be able to focu…

Will you still review all the preview/demo day pitches?

For those who haven't witnessed this: pg stands there for an entire day (maybe longer now), watching every pitch, slicing and dicing like a samurai. It's super rapid-fire, and with one or two pieces of advice each presentation doubles in effectiveness.

Re: Sam Altman for President

#75

For a second I got irrationally excited that Sam was announcing a Presidential run, then read the post. Beyond my initial excitement at a potential USPOTUS candidate I actually believe in, I'm much happier that Sam is taking over YC, where he can add much more value, and hopefully free up PG to do more thinking (writing, giving advice, etc).

OT: USPOTUS threw me for a loop there. :)

I'm not sure how I even noticed as I was just skimming the thread but I hit that line and lost all train of thought. Must be one of those things...

POTUS is "President Of The United States" so USPOTUS is redundant, but no more so than "ATM Machine" which my brain parses no problem. Sometimes its interesting to think about why we notice what we do :).

Re: Sam Altman for President

#76
post #9

Always enjoy Sam's writing. Wondering how this will impact YC (how much of YC is PG's aura and how much is YC? We will find out). Change is hard and exciting. If PG is monitoring these comments, my question is: "what was the hardest part about letting go?"

"Always enjoy Sam's writing"

I'm surprised that so many people are saying this, since I find his writing mediocre.

Re: Sam Altman for President

#78

I am really curious about YC corporate structure. Is it a partnership or LLC? Does PG still have "controlling vote block" in significant matters? Can I buy YC shares?

For your questions, it doesn't matter if it is a partnership, LLC or C-corp.

I don't know if PG has control.

You can't buy YC shares.

Re: Sam Altman for President

#79
post #2

I’m very excited about this. YC is the smartest group of people I’ve ever worked with, and I believe that startups are going to be the major driver for innovation and economic growth going forward. I was thinking this morning about what it was like to start a startup in early 2005 and how much it’s changed now. PG has done a remarkable amount to improve the startup ecosystem for founders—in fact, it’s hard to think o…

Congrats Sam! Starting with even before we joined Y Combinator in the summer of 2008, you were always a very important advisor to us. I remember when we were first trying to raise money, no investor would talk to us. In our fundraising deck, we had our total addressable market at something like $100M, which was ridiculous considering our vision was just airbeds. We wanted to make it smaller. You told us to opposite - switch the m's to b's. I asked why, and you said that "investors want b's, baby." Ok, I may have added the "baby" part of the quote, but more importantly, you mentored us to think bigger, and you were (alongside the Justin.tv guys) an inspiration for us to join Y Combinator. Since then, you have been super helpful with showing us how to hire and scale a company. Congrats on this next part of your journey. Many startups will be better off because of you.

Re: Sam Altman for President

#80

For a second I got irrationally excited that Sam was announcing a Presidential run, then read the post. Beyond my initial excitement at a potential USPOTUS candidate I actually believe in, I'm much happier that Sam is taking over YC, where he can add much more value, and hopefully free up PG to do more thinking (writing, giving advice, etc).

OT: USPOTUS threw me for a loop there. :) I'm not sure how I even noticed as I was just skimming the thread but I hit that line and lost all train of thought. Must be one of those things... POTUS is "President Of The United States" so USPOTUS is redundant, but no more so than "ATM Machine" which my brain parses no problem. Sometimes its interesting to think about why we notice what we do :).

POTYC.
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