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ephextomHNSource author
Lessons learnedExperience excerpt · English

We then had a few more meetings, and the company wanted to come visit our offices so they could …

… We then had a few more meetings, and the company wanted to come visit our offices so they could make sure we were a 'real' company. At that time, we were only 5 guys. So we hired a bunch of our college friends to 'work' for us for the day so we could look larger than we actually were. It worked, and we got the contract." I think the reason why PG respects Sam so much is he is charismatic, resourceful, and just overall seems like a genuine person. Companies can “fail”, for all kinds of reasons, even with perfect execution by the founders. I don’t really know why Loopt failed, but based on sama’s track record since, he is definitely a person who makes a huge impact with whatever he does (even if you think OpenAI hype is overblown, as I do). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3048944

Original discussionHow did Sam Altman fail upward so well?118 source comments · at import
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VI
VirusNewbieHN

I'm constantly surprised by the fact that Sam Altman is the one in charge of OpenAI. As far as I know, he dropped out of college to start a company that folded (Edit: this is wrong, he sold it, was a bust for investors though), ended up advising companies at YCombinator, Paul G liked him, and he just sort of made lots of connections. Then he became CEO of Open AI? I'm likely missing a step, right? Don't get me wrong, I don't think he's a moron or anything, but it's fascinating to me that he doesn't have ANY of the following things that I'd assume makes one qualified: * Published AI research * Sold a company * Worked at a Unicorn or top tech company * Reputation in OSS as a hacker/builder Surely there's more to the story? Do people who he has advised at YCombinator all agree he's brilliant and insightful? What am I missing? EDIT: I was wrong, he did sell a company. My mistake! That does c…

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CY
CyberRabbiHN

> just overall seems like a genuine person. Yet he admitted to deceiving a customer in that same anecdote

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ME
metadatHN

Pulling such a stunt is a hustler move, as well as deceptive , manipulative , and dishonest . ---- Edit: Sure thing, dang. I didn't realize UTF-8 magic was frowned upon. Could be a helpful addition to the guidelines if this is the case.

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GR
GrimburgerHN

> like a genuine person > we hired a bunch of our college friends to 'work' for us for the day so we could look larger than we actually were ?

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seabirdHN

The classic Accuracy International switcheroo. Always remembered fondly when it works out, not so much when it doesn't, but it's almost always interesting!

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