I’m Binge Watching Interviews with Sam Altman…

…so you don’t have to… and here are my takeaways. (Article 14)

Drew Wolin

7 min readMay 7, 2023

This is a continuation from a series of articles found HERE.

2017-Office Hours with Sam Altman

Context: This is the first recorded “office hours” session with Sam Altman, for Y Combinator.

Unless otherwise stated, all quotes belong to Sam Altman.

How do successful YC B2B companies acquire their first customers?

“The answer tends to be very different depending on the company.”

Sam says that trade shows, cold emails, and referrals all work. But that the “implied premise” with this question is that you need to get customers outside of your network.

“I would think about expanding your network.

Sam touts the benefit of affiliation with YC — network. That YC companies often get their first customers from other YC people.

“If you’re not in YC, I think you still always want to think about how you can meet other founders.”

Editor’s Note: I’m surprised to hear how important networking with other founders is for the purposes of getting your first customers.

Sam does not think highly of meet-up type networking events.

Sam suggests just emailing other founders that you respect and asking to get together for dinner.

Editor’s Note: As a note to self, it would be wise for me to be the event organizer, it’s a good way to gain positioning in a community, and be a valued and appreciated person in a community. I’d like to organize events and create the network in my home area, as I have done in the past (in NYC).

Sam touts the benefits of Silicon Valley — where there is a strong culture of helping other people.

“Don’t be afraid to just email other people who you’d like to talk to. That is how many people end up building their networks.”

“I’m sort of shy in big groups, but I know some people like events.”

“People forget that if you build something impressive, then your network will come to you.”

Sam gives the example of reaching out prior to creating anything, vs reaching out once you already have something. It helps build credibility if you already have something.

Sam says that almost all successful YC companies sell exclusively to other YC companies for their first 20 customers. Wow!

Is it helpful to be a college student while building a start up?

Sam’s answer is that it sort of it, but mostly because of societal expectations for what you should be doing. There is not an expectation of you making money. And you don’t have as many dependents.

Editor’s Note: I can see this is true. If you are only building a start up, there is a certain pressure… almost an equivalent of being “unemployed.” Alternatively, saying that you are in school is accepted, even if you are also building on the side. The main consideration is that you are not making reliable salary.

Sam claims that he could not tell you where any YC founders went to school.

Editor’s Note: This feels slightly disengenuous, as I have noticed a very clear bias toward YC accepting Ivy League new joiners.

Do you need a tech background to be a founder? Snapchat and AirBnB founders do not have any technical background.

“It is possible to be a founder without a technical background. However, you have to be able to convince really good technical people to follow you. And you need to be great at Product and a great leader.”

As a founder, how do you vet someone who is technical?

“If it’s someone you’ve known for a while, which is the only way I’d do this, hopefully you already know the quality of their work.”

“I would not start a company with someone who I did not really know.”

Editor’s Note: Big if true!

If you’re not technical, and want to build a company, can you become technical?

Sam says: Yes! And plenty of founders do that. Take online courses until you know enough.

“The thing that I see going most wrong with crowdfunding for start ups is… when it comes to equity crowdfunding, people have become less willing to support things that don’t have VC support.”

Editor’s Note: Interesting observation. But no reason why this “must” be true.

Also, I should consider setting up a Patreon for folks to “subscribe to” and support my work.

“I think it’s a bad strategy to let someone else tell you what’s important and then go and do that.”

Editor’s Note: Sam has alluded to this MANY many times. I have had students from my alma mater reach out to me for mentorship, and the typically ask advice such as “Should I get a Masters Degree?” I respond with the same sentiment at Sam. They don’t appreciate it!

“If I would have stayed at school longer, I would have studied Synthetic Biology.”

Sam is interested in how we can use technology to build new modified life forms. Sam also has an interest in nuclear energy, as we need cheap and clean energy.

“Cheap and clean energy can be transformational.”

Sam also mentions Education and VR as what he sees as hot topics for the next wave of Tech.

“To my great shame, I was an investment banker for like one day, and I didn’t know that.” Sam says he quickly gravitated toward Tech, but it took him some time to figure out what subset of Tech was most interesting to him, and where he could make the biggest impact. “I certainly didn’t know from Day 1 that I’d love investing in Tech start ups.”

Sam used “exploration” to figure out what the world needs. Sam says that the world needs a lot of things.

“If you estimate the world needs something, we probably need it.” But there are many non-obvious things that the world also needs, he says.

“I wanted to be a writer. But the world does not need nor value the world’s 7,000th novel.” And it is also difficult to make good money writing, Sam says.

Editor’s Note: This is always good context to keep in mind.

What will be impacted most in the 10–20 years?

“Everyone is searching for the next platform. The next big companies are always formed due to the rise of new platforms.” Sam gives the internet as an example of the newest platform in the 1980s, and the iPhone as the next big platform in the 2010s. Sam says Facebook (and social media generally) partially qualify.

Editor’s Note: My concern with this type of hindsight / historical review is that now everybody is searching for the next platform, and not “letting it come naturally.” This could explain the extraordinary hype behind Bitcoin and VR — because people realized that these could be the next big platform. Under normal circumstances, where people were not watching out for them through that lens, the excitement may have been more appropriate / measured.

“Wait until someone builds a new thing that, once people get it, they use it a lot every day.”

“For the iPhone, you could tell that the people who had it really really loved it.”

“Most acquisitions are not smooth sailing. Go into it knowing that it’s going to be hard. The most important thing that I have seen is an agreement that solidifies the autonomy of the target company. I would challenge founders to push to get an agreement that says that you will continue operating as autonomously as possible.”

My Biggest Takeaway from this Interview

The first ten minutes of the interview was about attracting good talent AND customers to work with as a Founder.

I’m surprised to hear how important networking with other founders is for the purposes of getting your first customers.

Sam does not think highly of meet-up type networking events.

Sam suggests just emailing other founders that you respect and asking to get together for dinner.

As a note to self, it would be wise for me to be the event organizer, it’s a good way to gain positioning in a community, and be a valued and appreciated person in a community.

Is it helpful to be a college student while building a start up?

I can see this is true. If you are only building a start up, there is a certain pressure… almost an equivalent of being “unemployed.” Alternatively, saying that you are in school is accepted, even if you are also building on the side. The main consideration is that you are not making reliable salary.

Also, I should consider setting up a Patreon for folks to “subscribe to” and support my work.