5 important things I’m taking away, as SaaS founder, from Sam Altman’s interview with Harry Stebbings

[bubby348]

1. Sam’s #1 skill, according to the COO, is his “meniacal focus on the 1 most important thing in the business”. Imagine if we all dedicated 80% of our energy to the most important challenge for our business? Easy principle to understand. Hard to be this disciplined in practise.
2. Sam is brutally honest, but in a sincere and well-meaning way. He tells Harry one of his questions is boring, without being rude. He tells competitors that OpenAI will steamroll them. These are not things people or CEOs say. Imagine if we were all more honest with our colleagues. Being honest, when it's negative, is hard.
3. The models available in 12-24 months will make the models we use today look like child's play. The cost and speed of advanced models will trend towards near zero. Sam tells founders to build startups with these facts in mind.
4. OpenAI is as much a B2C company as it is a B2B company. Meaning OpenAI will serve the companies building AI applications. But also compete with those same companies with their own AI applications. Nothing is off the table for them.
5. Sam is modest and doesn't take himself too seriously. He does the whole interview wearing a jumper with the name of the podcast, 20VC. Thrown on top of his own clothes. Most people, certainly billionaires, care deeply about how they come across. They think they're above wearing some oversized jumper cause someone asked them. Sam regularly butts into the conversation to say "yeah, I could never do that role" or "I'm so bad at X or Y". I can imagine Sam being the kind of person to admit when he's wrong or to say when he doesn't understand something. Few of us could say the same about ourselves.

Conclusion: Sam seems like a great, likeable guy. Exactly as I'd hoped he would be.

 

[calo]

@bubby348 I agree with most of these, the cynical side of me thinks a large degree of Sam is quite calculated and I wonder how authentic the humble simple ceo persona is.

 

[bubby348]

@calo Yeah, that's definitely in the back of my mind. But every time I see something mentioned about him, it's positive. So I think I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt

 

[emmsmom81]

@bubby348 This is what Paul Graham had to say about Sam Altman in 2008 when sam was just beginning his career.

"You could parachute him into an island full of cannibals and come back in 5 years and he'd be the king. If you're Sam Altman, you don't have to be profitable to convey to investors that you'll succeed with or without them."

http://www.paulgraham.com/fundraising.html

 

[bubby348]

@emmsmom81 Love this quote!