
Y Combinator’s New Head - nikhilpandit
http://recode.net/2014/03/18/y-combinators-new-head-startup-whisperer-sam-altman-is-quite-a-talker/
======
reason
No disrespect to Sam in any way -- he truly seems like a brilliant guy with a
chorus of influential people behind him -- but I've been on a successful-
person wikipedia binge as of late, and it's become very, very clear that a
person's upbringing almost determines whether or not they're going to be
successfull, which saddens me. I grew up to some very close-minded parents who
severely limited my growth, forced me to fulfill their every wish, I couldn't
get into a top school, and yet I've always held onto a bit of hope that maybe
one day I'll be as great or as brilliant or intelligent as Sam et al. But that
hope is quickly vanishing the more and more I read about these individuals'
backgrounds. Successful parents (who were likely encouraging, supportive, and
open-minded), great schools, achievements at early ages, etc, all seem to be a
common thread, and trying to kickstart things again past your formative years
seems futile. I don't mean to rant or derail the topic, and apologies if I do.

~~~
klochner
From this week's "Corner Office" in the NYT, about hiring:

 _What I’m mainly listening for is: Does this person believe things are
happening for them, for a positive reason, regardless of what actually
happened? Or do they believe that things are happening to them and against
them? Do they hold a grudge against events, or do they believe they were a
gift?

I’ll listen for whether they say things like, “I’m so glad that actually
happened, because I learned this and this.” Or do they believe that there’s
sort of a conspiracy out to harm them? Because if you work for me, you’re
either going to think I’m here to help you, regardless of what I do, or you’re
going to think I’m here to get you. I really don’t want the latter._

[http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/business/shawn-jenkins-
of-...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/business/shawn-jenkins-of-
benefitfocus-a-ceo-is-like-a-flight-instructor.html)

~~~
adamio
Good advice. Treat an interview like a advertisement for yourself, not a
counseling session

Interviewer: "Why are you looking to leave company X?"

"I'm so glad I was hired by X, because its a great company and I know what to
look for now in other great companies out there"

or

"It's a toxic work environment, and my manager knows nothing"

------
sendos
Given all this over-the-top fawning from Graham, Thiel, etc, one thing comes
to mind: "Where's the beef?"

AFAIK, he only has one failed startup to his name, and yet he is hailed as a
shrewd thinker and top startup strategist.

For those who know and respect Sam, how would you reconcile his amazing
status/respect-from-top-people with his lack of concrete achievements?

~~~
7cupsoftea
I respect Sam a lot. I had the good fortune of meeting with him a few times
and he invested in my company. I found him to be very smart, honest, and real.
If I had to capture one of his strengths, I'd say he understands how systems
operate (technology, people, and cultural systems).

I'd have to disagree with you on lack of concrete achievements. He has a lot
of concrete achievements that you can point to. Starting and selling a company
that was before its time. Also, helping many startups succeed. Either one of
these alone would count, in my book, as being significant. I think the fact
that other people perceive him so positively is a good indication that perhaps
he is considerably more talented than even his current concrete achievements
suggest. Think about it. Thiel, Graham, etc. These guys evaluate the best of
the best on a regular basis. Having been through YC and seeing the deliberate
and enormous amount of analysis that they put into each founder, I can't even
begin to think through all the thought that they have put into asking Sam to
be President of YC.

~~~
sendos
I'm sure he's a remarkable person, but not so sure about the examples you give
as concrete achievements. First, I would not consider Loopt a success. Second,
can you give examples of startups he helped succeed?

There is a saying to the effect of "If your financial advisor is so great,
where is his yacht?"

Similarly, how can a person be a great startup advisor without significant
successes under his belt? If he is that good at strategy and finding
product/market fit, why doesn't he apply these skills to his own ideas?

The basic lesson out of this may be that, even if you are a remarkable person,
and have great insights and great strategic skills, finding success in the
startup world has such a big element of luck and "being in the right place at
the right time" that a lot of remarkable people never find success with any
startups they start.

~~~
nostrademons
I think your conclusion is probably right on. You can do everything right and
still fail in the startup world, because there's a large element of luck. In
Sam/Loopt's case, I'm almost certain they were early -
FourSquare/Latitude/Facebook-Check-Ins did okay just 4 years later. But then,
didn't someone once say "Early is wrong as far as startups go." Perhaps that
means you shouldn't listen to sama's advice on market-timing, but it doesn't
mean you shouldn't listen to his advice on the other aspects of startups.

The more heartening way of looking at your conclusion is that if you do
everything right - don't screw anyone over, take calculated prudent risks,
seek out information, make sane decisions, and work hard - and if you make
that visible to people, you can usually soft-land even if your startup fails.
That was my experience with my own failed startup - once I folded it up and
wrote a postmortem, I had a large number of job offers, and took one at
Google. People judge you based on what _you_ do, not for things out of your
control.

------
chollida1
> “It’s remarkable when somebody is both extroverted and smart,”

> “Picture a smart person,” said Graham. “You don’t imagine somebody who is
> really good at talking to people, you picture someone really awkward.”

This statement seems really weird to me. Looking at all the people I've known
in my life the smartest people, at least in in terms of academic and financial
achievements, are the extroverts.

Extroverted and smart seems to be a very common trait. Hell I'd say that its
much easier to be smart if you are extroverted as learning from other peoples
experiences is a great way to learn more.

Who is Paul hanging around with that smart is paired with awkward more than
outgoing?

I'd have to go to Hollywood movies to find the stereotypical nerd profile.

~~~
iopq
Oh I don't know where we even get that stereotype from. Oh wait, I do, because
Albert Einstein was an introvert and preferred to be alone. More recent
examples: Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak.

~~~
defen
I think there are just as many examples of world-class smart people on the
other end of the outgoing/charismatic curve: Von Neumann, Feynman, Bohr,
Russell, Hilbert off the top of my head.

~~~
napoleond
Or is it possible that we _know_ about those world-class smart people
_because_ they're outgoing/charismatic? ie. perhaps listing off names of smart
people we can think of who are/aren't outgoing/charismatic is maybe not the
best way of determining any statistical inference whatsoever.

------
soneca
_“You know how when you hit a tennis ball, it bounces back up and then
simultaneously you swing the racket? YC is just getting to this point,” he
added. “If you think [my role] is an influential position now, just wait a
couple years and see what Sam does.”_

No, i don't know. Actually I have no idea what this analogy was supposed to
mean, but I am very optimistic about how YC can innovate itself with Sam as
president.

I really liked the university concept, with YC as a place that creates
knowledge and innovation for the society. I imagine YC being less about a
tough funnel that leads to big hits on monetary valuations and more of a
innovation powerhouse on different fields (not just different markets).

Best of luck to Sam.

~~~
Denzel
I think, this is just a guess, he's referring to when a person lobs the ball
over the net to you and it hits the ground first before coming back up; you
have to time your stroke perfectly to hit it back or risk missing the ball on
the come-up. [1] So it's my belief that he's saying YC has been rising all
this time, and with the right swing of the racket, they will hit it out of the
park (tennis court?). Needless to say it's a confusing analogy. :)

Anywho congratulations to Sam, I can't wait to see what he does!

[1] [http://youtu.be/MaN98ZkGXSs?t=4s](http://youtu.be/MaN98ZkGXSs?t=4s) : The
first few seconds of this video might help visualize it.

~~~
rahij
Yep, it's called a half volley, you need to hit when you are too close to the
ball. So., you need to swing the racquet forward even while it's bouncing, as
opposed to a later swing in case of a regular length ball.

------
hnriot
“Picture a smart person,” said Graham. “You don’t imagine somebody who is
really good at talking to people, you picture someone really awkward."

I don't at all, in fact I find that kind of thinking highly insulting. Being a
smart person in my experience is often _highly correlated_ with being able to
effectively communicate and discuss with others.

~~~
dampflames
I don't think there is a correlation between them. Rather, I think that if
there are two people who have the same level of intelligence, the one who is a
better communicator (and this is more often a trait found in extroverts) comes
across as smarter because they can transmit their ideas better.

~~~
001sky
Contrary view, based on research:

[http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/10/us-usa-
investment-...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/10/us-usa-investment-
study-idUSBREA291PP20140310)

[http://phys.org/news/2014-03-investors-good-looking-male-
ent...](http://phys.org/news/2014-03-investors-good-looking-male-
entrepreneurial-ventures.html)

------
hol
> “I learned this great lesson of my life,“ he said. “The way to get things
> done is to just be really f __ __*g persistent. … I had this philosophy of
> going to every door and every window.”

Nothing more true than that.

Really excited to see where Sam takes things; he's super smart and very
inspiring.

------
gargarplex
I had no idea Sam was gay. That was the most interesting part of the story,
and also that I never knew before.

~~~
namenotrequired
I also didn't know, but I am curious why you find his sexuality more
interesting than anything else in this story?

~~~
mattkrisiloff
Being gay, I also found it particularly interesting. Akin to the Female
Founders Conference, it's energizing to see successful LGBT founders.

~~~
corin_
I'm exactly the same, but don't particularly like it... I do pay lots of
attention to who's gay, from celebrities to people I come across personally,
and the logical side of my brain tells me it's irrelevant, while the emotional
side can't stop caring. (Also gay.)

------
corin_
Not really of any importance to the article, but:

> _It’s not crazy for Sam Altman’s phone bill to rack up 6,000 talking minutes
> in a month. He talks a lot, to a lot of people._

Maybe 6000 is above average, but is it even close to 'crazy' for anyone?
That's only 3.3 hours a day, I probably hit that on week days for work alone
(sure plenty of people will have jobs where less phone calls are needed), and
with family and friends (several who I'll have regular long chats with, rather
than just 30 second calls) I think I definitely go above 6000 a month, and I
don't consider myself a massively heavy phone user.

~~~
hartie
Do you work in sales? What do you spend so much time on the phone for? I spend
~1 hr a week on the phone and it's all to my family.

~~~
corin_
I don't work in sales, but in marketing - probably 70% of my work calls would
be to colleagues/clients, the rest to external people (e.g. Companies we spend
marketing $ with).

For example, off the top of my head I have 8 hours of normally-scheduled
conference calls (before anything ad-hoc) with my main client each week -
they're a big company, the people I work with there are based in offices in
England, Ireland (2 locations), Holland, France (2)... and then less frequent
contact with other offices in the US (mainly) and random regional offices
occasionally such as Sweden and Greece in the last couple of weeks. Phone
calls are really pretty important in terms of what we do with each other. (I
also travel around Europe a fair bit, but that doesn't make up for day to day
communications).

But I also spend a fair bit of time talking to friends and family too, I guess
that's partly due to needs (I don't have long calls with people who live down
the road from me) and partly just a personal preference thing (also use Skype,
SMS and email, which and how much of which depends on the person).

~~~
nknighthb
I may have spent an hour on phone/facetime/skype/whatever calls in the past
two months. Half of that to my credit card company assuring them that yes, I
really am the one using my credit card in Taiwan, and the other half with
family.

That's an abnormally large amount of time for me. Usually I can go days or
weeks between phone calls, and when they arrive, they're nobody I want to talk
to. They're almost never work related unless something has gone horribly,
horribly wrong in production, and even then I try hard to get whoever I'm
talking to off the damn phone quickly so I can focus on the problem.

------
pskittle
Sam's Cool!

I had the privilege of listening to him , when he was on the east cost in
school once to promote YC. A lot of people who have been a part of successful
startups (founders , VC's , angels) have this obnoxious vibe that they give
out , esp if they're from the valley.

(Which understandably is important and helps them with whatever they have
going on , however it was refreshing to see humility in the Now YC president.)

I remember distinctly , he gave his talk where he introduced YC and then
talked about what they look for in the founding team etc and then gave the
stage to YC alums who accompanied him. One of these guys exhibited the "vibe"
I mentioned earlier . My friends and I thought he must be really successful
and were contemplating talking to him later to get advice.

He unfortunately didn't know how to work his way around a projector. everyone
(students , prof , and of course our YC guests were waiting for him to start).
A prof normally would use that as example and tell us that that the projectors
, need to be more usable.

Sam got up to help the guy up from a slightly embarrassing situation. but what
happened next was odd ,(The YC alum) didn't even acknowledge it or say thanks
. He rudely just went to the middle and started talking , rather bragging
about how awesome his company was. (which is fine ) but it came across as a
silly TV commercial. We decided we didn't want advice from an obnoxious
person.

This probably doesn't sound like a logical reason to be affinitve of the new
YC president but that day I thought he demonstrates qualities of a good leader
.

Good luck to him and YC

------
technotony
Most interesting thing for me was that Sam is going to go out and meet biotech
people... gives me hope that YC understands the convergence that is happening
between web technologies and biotechnologies... guess it's time for
www.glowingplant.com to apply to YC!

------
chbrown
I wasn't there for the WWDC 2008 presentation, but in the article's linked
snippet Altman's collars are definitely not popped. Google images has plenty
of reference images for properly popped collars, reassuringly framed as
motivational posters.

------
hartie
There are hundreds of people he talks to on a daily basis? How?

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jdmitch
great story: _“I think I went to sleep at four, I slept till six, I got on a
flight at seven to Orange County where Boost was. And I just got to that
office and sat there, and the guy was like, ‘Weird, you’re in my office.’ I
said, ‘Just meet me for 10 minutes, and let me know what you think.’ He said
no a few times, but I showed it to him, and I could tell he was really
impressed.”_

------
jhowell
He bares a striking resemblance to PG.

