
Office Hours with Sam Altman [video] - craigcannon
http://blog.ycombinator.com/office-hours-with-sam-altman/
======
gh1
Thanks for the taking the time to do this. It is valuable to hear Sam talk
from his experience.

Some follow up questions came to my mind after listening to this. I am going
to list them here. If you see this @craigcannon, please consider them for the
next one.

1\. One disadvantage of being young is that they are usually inexperienced in
managing people and conducting business. How would you recommend young people
to improve their skills in people management and business? What kind of books
should they read? What kind of habits should they inculcate? Is there anything
else you would recommend?

2\. A non technical founder needs to be a product guy. It is also easy for a
n00b to pick up coding skills as there are so many great resources on the
internet, many of them operated by YC companies. The follow up question here
is the converse: how can a technical founder learn product skills? What kind
of resources are available and which ones would you recommend?

3\. Sam mentioned AI and computer security as two areas that he thought was
important. With AI, we are already seeing hints of disruptive technology (deep
learning). What is the situation with computer security in comparison?

4\. Stickiness of a new platform can be taken as an indicator of whether it is
worthwhile to develop things on it. How would you rate voice platforms like
Amazon Echo, Google Home, Apple Siri in terms of stickiness?

~~~
sjg007
#3. Securing the Internet of Things.. Securing data in the cloud and on
premise.. Automated cyber defenses.. You can apply these at the network level,
the application level, the machine level etc... new ways to manage
authentication/passwords.. new anti phishing technology, behavioral and
outlier analysis. Tools to manage hacks effectively.

There's a whole industry here.

------
koololdkool
The crowdfunding response is feels like common incumbentspeak. YC is
threatened by crowdfunding so it seems like Altman can't see it straight. It
looks like a major blind spot.

It would be great if YC actually did "eat itself" and usher in the
crowdfunding era. This is certainly contrary to the exclusive club they are
today but it beats being subsumed. And YC does have good things to teach
people and is quite generous. It would be good for the world if they were the
ones that did this. "Kickstart with equity" is clearly the model of the
future. Indiegogo is working on it.

~~~
nedwin
"YC is threatened by crowdfunding" Maybe, or maybe he actually thinks its not
a great idea.

""Kickstart with equity" is clearly the model of the future. " Clearly? I
would disagree.

~~~
ZenoArrow
Is crowdfunding the way to go for all new companies? No, but it's clearly a
good model for some.

Crowdfunding seems to work well when you've already got an experienced team,
have an advanced prototype of your product/service, and just need funding to
scale up that prototype.

If you've got an inexperienced team, an MVP-style prototype, and could use
extra guidance and support, then going with crowdfunding would probably end up
being problematic.

~~~
nedwin
What are examples of successful crowdfunded companies?

How does the crowd determine the difference between your type 1 and your type
2 companies?

~~~
ZenoArrow
>"What are examples of successful crowdfunded companies?"

I can talk about successful crowdfunded products, including products made by
companies.

To give one example to start with, Formlabs has used crowdfunding to help
generate money to manufacture their 3D printers:

[https://formlabs.com/](https://formlabs.com/)

>"How does the crowd determine the difference between your type 1 and your
type 2 companies?"

I'd suggest it comes down to experience. With experience in crowdfunding you
can spot the campaigns that are likely to succeed, and which ones are likely
to fail. The main problem I see is when campaigns are too ambitious based on
the background of the people involved. For example, high volume manufacturing
in China without prior experience of working with Chinese manufacturing
companies.

~~~
xja
In formlab's case they had a 1.8MUSD seed round prior to the crowdfunding.
They raised ~3MUSD from crowdfunding.

This probably helped give them some runway to put together a series A. However
they still raised an additional 50MUSD.

So, I don't think they're a great example of a company bootstrapping from
crowdfunding. It's more of a traditional play, with some validation (and some
runway) from crowdfunding.

------
vcarl
Great questions, great answers.

Sam's comments on Meetups mirror my experiences, though I'm not in a tech hub
area. It depends really heavily on the person organizing and what kind of
outreach they've done to people, existing groups, and organizations in the
area. I've seen a few groups flare up really enthusiastically, then dwindle
over a few months. I've also tried joining some existing meetups that feel
most like people are sticking around more to hang out with the other people
than because of value from the meetup.

Likewise for finding a technical cofounder. As a technical person I've spent
some time thinking about the other direction, and (after a rough experience)
there's no way I'd try to get funding with somebody I didn't know very well.

------
craigcannon
Thanks to everyone that submitted questions!

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13338805](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13338805)

------
retrogradeorbit
The room needs some sound treatment. Also I found Sam's constant vocal fry
annoying and difficult to listen to. Sorry, yes, I'm OCD.

~~~
VladKovac
He has Ezra Klein voice. Or maybe it's called NPR voice.

~~~
soniman
Would Sam talk to someone higher status with a fry voice, like he couldn't be
bothered to muster the energy to speak normally? No. Vocal fry is used to show
that the speaker is higher status. Genuinely high status people don't use it
because it's a passive-aggressive way to show higher status.

------
CptJamesCook
I think Sam Altman might be the nicest guy in Silicon Valley. It seems like he
really wants to do the right thing at all times.

~~~
AndrewKemendo
I wouldn't come to that same conclusion based on a few things, but the biggest
one was his behaviors around reddit:
[https://www.fastcompany.com/3048521/fast-feed/ellen-pao-
part...](https://www.fastcompany.com/3048521/fast-feed/ellen-pao-part-of-a-
long-con-at-reddit)

~~~
CptJamesCook
What do you think he did wrong here? Joke around in the thread?

~~~
AndrewKemendo
Given other accounts of Altman's persona, both publicly and from personal
accounts to me, he seems to be rabidly competitive and cutthroat:

[1] "You could parachute [Sam] into an island full of cannibals and come back
in 5 years and he'd be the king"

[2] “But I have guns, gold, potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water,
gas masks from the Israeli Defense Force, and a big patch of land in Big Sur I
can fly to.”

[2] "Graham said, “I asked Sam in our kitchen, ‘Do you want to take over YC?,’
and he smiled, like, it worked."

So in the context of Yishan's comment, it demonstrates to me that the "joking"
was a subtle nod that he wouldn't have any qualms with back room dealing and
manipulation to reach a goal.

While that might sound like a hit on him, it's actually not. I relate to that
approach strongly, and think it's actually the right way to play it.

However I think it's actually a bad comparison to say he's the "nicest guy in
the valley." That title goes to Steve Wozniak.

[1][http://paulgraham.com/fundraising.html](http://paulgraham.com/fundraising.html)

[2][http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/10/sam-altmans-
man...](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/10/sam-altmans-manifest-
destiny)

~~~
CptJamesCook
[1] There is more than one way to power. Sam seems to get there by consensus

[2] These are for survival in the case of an apocalypse, not aggression

[3] Graham loved Sam Altman, so he put him in charge of YC.

None of these really related to Sam making a joke about Reddit. Conde Nast is
extremely happy with Reddit. It's growing (#7 site in the USA), and valuable.

