Insights from Sam Altman, a former Y Combinator president
Insights from Sam Altman, a former Y Combinator president
Good to think about
1. Sam Altman, the former president of Y Combinator, offers valuable insights into startup investments. He emphasises the importance of regular, ongoing communications between founders. If you meet someone multiple times a month and notice significant changes in how they think and what they do, this is a promising sign. The pace of these changes often matters more than their initial skills and abilities.
2. When Altman assesses a founder, he asks himself a critical question: "Would I be willing to work for this person?" Compatibility and trust are key factors.
3. Another essential thing to consider is whether Altman can envision this founder becoming a leader in their target market. It's about evaluating their potential to be the driving force within their industry.
4. While people can become more cynical and ambitious over time, transitioning from slow to fast is challenging. Altman shares a practical example: he's cautious about investing in those who consistently take too long to respond to emails.
5. Recognizing exceptional founders is only part of the equation. Altman believes in spotting the right markets. These markets should be rapidly evolving and ideally already large or rapidly developing. Surpassing established giants is only feasible within a dynamic market. Wealth is generated on a large scale.
6. Quantity is secondary to devotion. Altman advocates for fewer users who engage with your product consistently over a large, sporadic user base. He points out that even the iPhone had an intimate user base in the beginning, holding only a 10% share of the market in terms of units sold.
7. Altman notes common characteristics of the startups he's invested in: persuasive founders, innovative ideas that attract talent, products that garner word-of-mouth referrals, fast-growing markets, low costs, user value that scales with increased user numbers, and the capacity for rapid growth, preferably at a rate at least ten times that of alternative methods.
8. Altman advises focusing on ideas that have the potential to pave the way to a billion-dollar company. Failures on this path aren't catastrophic, and successes in smaller endeavours are less significant. The real money can be found when you aim for a 10-billion-dollar business.
This text is a free reinterpretation of several key points from the original article by Sam Altman.
👍 Thank you for reading
If you liked it, share it with your friends and everyone interested in new IT startup ideas and trends. Got any questions? Leave a comment.
🥰 Do you like this Newsletter?
Please share your feedback. Any opinion and ideas are welcome.
❤️ Your support matters
Support by your subscription. This allows me to access paid sources and deliver more ideas and trends to you. Some of them cost 2K+ euro/year 😨.
🚀 Are you going to launch your IT startup?
Perhaps I could help you get started and secure funding. Check out my page.