Sam Altman has this weird style of writing with such an authoritative voice to sound convincing with very little substance to back up his claims (my other favorite one is the one about "life advice" when he turned 30 years old [1]). It would be perfectly fine to convey the same thoughts by just being a bit more humble and make it clear that these are just his (unfounded) opinions.
> I look for founders who are scrappy and formidable at the same time (a rarer combination than it sounds); mission-oriented, obsessed with their companies, relentless, and determined; extremely smart (necessary but certainly not sufficient); decisive, fast-moving, and willful; courageous, high-conviction, and willing to be misunderstood; strong communicators and infectious evangelists; and capable of becoming tough and ambitious.
> The spectral signatures of the best companies I’ve invested in are remarkably similar. They usually have most of the following characteristics: compelling founders, a mission that attracts talented people into the startup’s orbit, a product so good that people spontaneously tell their friends about it, a rapidly growing market, a network effect and low marginal costs, the ability to grow fast, and a product that is either fundamentally new or 10x better than existing options.
This reads like a bad Tinder profile. It becomes problematic when aspiring entrepreneurs (I certainly have been guilty of this when I was just starting out) start believing they should now optimize for a certain founder profile that a particular investor (especially a well-known one, like Sam Altman) is looking for. Other investors have other profiles, I know of one who supposedly only invests in GSB graduates, even though his investment track record has very little to do with GSB. When you believe this as a young founder, you'll work hard to fit that profile and will reach out to them when you think you've finally marked off all the check marks, only to find out that the investors will back track on their thesis and find another reason not to fund you. The truth is that most investor theses, no matter how well formulated, break down in the face of FOMO, and will not matter much when it comes to writing checks. The paradox of raising money is painfully obvious: investors will want to invest the most when you least need it, not when you meet some random investment thesis.
It's important to realize that Sam Altman is human too, and makes mistakes like anyone else:
> However, sometimes bad founders have good ideas too, and investing in them is the chronic investing mistake that has been hardest for me to correct. (My second biggest chronic mistake has been chasing investments primarily because other investors like them.)
I'm willing to bet that in reality, most of Sam's investments looked more like this rather than meeting the high standards he laid out. I just wished he would be more humble to admit this.
I call it the Hacker (News) Essay style and it's a persuasive essay style. Paul Graham writes in the same style. So I see its adoption as the result of the master-apprentice process. It is most effective with 20:20 hindsight because nobody can predict the future.
> I look for founders who are scrappy and formidable at the same time (a rarer combination than it sounds); mission-oriented, obsessed with their companies, relentless, and determined; extremely smart (necessary but certainly not sufficient); decisive, fast-moving, and willful; courageous, high-conviction, and willing to be misunderstood; strong communicators and infectious evangelists; and capable of becoming tough and ambitious.
> The spectral signatures of the best companies I’ve invested in are remarkably similar. They usually have most of the following characteristics: compelling founders, a mission that attracts talented people into the startup’s orbit, a product so good that people spontaneously tell their friends about it, a rapidly growing market, a network effect and low marginal costs, the ability to grow fast, and a product that is either fundamentally new or 10x better than existing options.
This reads like a bad Tinder profile. It becomes problematic when aspiring entrepreneurs (I certainly have been guilty of this when I was just starting out) start believing they should now optimize for a certain founder profile that a particular investor (especially a well-known one, like Sam Altman) is looking for. Other investors have other profiles, I know of one who supposedly only invests in GSB graduates, even though his investment track record has very little to do with GSB. When you believe this as a young founder, you'll work hard to fit that profile and will reach out to them when you think you've finally marked off all the check marks, only to find out that the investors will back track on their thesis and find another reason not to fund you. The truth is that most investor theses, no matter how well formulated, break down in the face of FOMO, and will not matter much when it comes to writing checks. The paradox of raising money is painfully obvious: investors will want to invest the most when you least need it, not when you meet some random investment thesis.
It's important to realize that Sam Altman is human too, and makes mistakes like anyone else:
> However, sometimes bad founders have good ideas too, and investing in them is the chronic investing mistake that has been hardest for me to correct. (My second biggest chronic mistake has been chasing investments primarily because other investors like them.)
I'm willing to bet that in reality, most of Sam's investments looked more like this rather than meeting the high standards he laid out. I just wished he would be more humble to admit this.
[1] https://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-the-decades...