The field of entrepreneurship is more of a roller coaster ride. With many personalities, we come across many stories. These stories are filled with struggle and desire to reach the top of the mountain. Same is the story about Samuel H. Sam Altman. Sam is an American entrepreneur, investor, programmer, and blogger. His scale of success can be derived from the fact that he is the former president of Y Combinator and the present CEO of OpenAI. Read this article to know about the story of Sam Altman.
Explore:
Sam Altman - Biography/Quick facts
Sam Altman - Education and Childhood
Sam Altman - Professional Life as an Entrepreneur
Sam Altman - Professional Life as an Investor
Sam Altman - Association with Nuclear Energy
Sam Altman - Association with OpenAI
How to be Successful? - Tips from Sam Altman
Sam Altman - As an Inspiration
Sam Altman - Biography/Quick facts
| Name | Samuel H. Altman |
|---|---|
| Born | April 22, 1985 Chicago, Illinois, US |
| Age | 35 (2020) |
| Citizenship | American |
| Education | John Burroughs School, Stanford University (dropped out), University of Waterloo |
| Title | CEO of OpenAI LP and former president of Y Combinator |
| Net worth | $250 million (2020) |
Sam Altman - Education and Childhood
Sam grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. Being provided a personal computer at the age of 8, he developed a deep interest in programming. He attended John Burroughs School for pursuing his high school studies and later on, was admitted to Stanford University. But, he had to drop out in 2005, and later on, in 2017, he received an honorary degree from the University of Waterloo.
Sam Altman - Professional Life as an Entrepreneur
i. Starting with Loopt
Sam began his career as an entrepreneur at the age of 19. His first company was Loopt. It was a location-based social networking mobile application. Being a part of an era in which Facebook and Twitter were about to dominate the social media platform, this company was successful in raising more than  $30M in venture capital. However, Loopt was shut down in 2012 after failing to get traction. Later on, this company was acquired by the Green Dot Corporation for $43.4 million.
ii. Working in Y Combinator
While being a part of Loopt, Sam began working as a part-timer at Y Combinator in 2011. He took giant strides in the company and was named as the president of Y combinatory by the co-founder Paul Graham. His first batch of investment as the president of the company included Loopt. Later on, Sam had said that the total valuation of Y Combinator companies had surpassed $65 billion. The companies that were included were Airbnb, Dropbox, Zenefits, Stripe. Sam had also stated that he would become the president of YC Group. This will be like an umbrella organization that will include other units too.
Being one of the vital members, he had aimed to expand Y Combinator to fund 1,000 new companies per year. Â It was in 2005 that Sam announced YC Community. It is a $700 million growth-stage equity fund that invests in YC Companies. Also in the same year, Sam had announced the formation of Y Combinator Research. This is a non-profit research lab. Sam had donated $10 million to the Y Combinator Research Group.
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Sam Altman - Professional Life as an Investor
Sam has been a successful investor. He has invested in many companies like Airbnb, Stripe, Reddit, Asana, Pinterest, Teespring, Zenefits, FarmLogs, Shoptiques and many more to name. His efforts have helped many companies to make a big mark in the startup ecosystem. He was the CEO of Reddit for around eight days. Being an investor, he developed a way for the community to own a part of the company.
This fuelled the popularity of the community and the company in the bigger stage. He was the one who announced the return of Steve Huffman as the CEO of Reddit on July 10, 2015. Hence, Sam was instrumental in the success of Reddit as a company.
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Sam Altman - Association with Nuclear Energy
Nuclear energy is a sector that can help to boost the power of a nation. Being an entrepreneur, Sam had an association with Helion. Apart from Helion, he was also associated with Oklo. According to him, nuclear energy is one of the most important areas of technological development. Hence, Sam has been instrumental in the development of the nuclear energy sector for some companies too!
Sam Altman - Association with OpenAI
Sam and the well known Tesla founder Elon Musk were the co-chairmen of OpenAI. This is a for profit research company whose only goal is to advance digital intelligence in a way that is more likely to benefit the advancement of mankind. This company has taken giant strides recently in the field of digital intelligence. Therefore, Sam is instrumental in the development of OpenAI too!
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How to be Successful? - Tips from Sam Altman
Sam has been associated with many successful startups. So, you might be wondering, What product you should build? How to be successful?
- Well, according to Sam, one should build a product that is so good that people share the story about it with their friends!
- As per Sam, if you can build a product that is so good, that people spontaneously tell their friends about your product, then 80% of the job is done!
- The most successful companies like Google, Facebook, or Twitter are popular because of their popularity. And, the popularity came when the users describe the services offered by the companies from their friends.
- Another factor that can determine the future of the company is the quality of your product. By quality, one should mean that the product should be easy to understand and explain.
- Apart from the products, the other important factor is the market. Hence, a successful entrepreneur should aim for a market that is starting to undergo an exponential growth.
- Trends are also an important factor that can determine the popularity and future of your company . Hence, one should ensure that the trend the company follows in terms of choosing a platform is not fake!
Sam Altman - As an Inspiration
Sam’s story has been an inspiring one. His efforts to contribute to every sector of society has been commendable. He has associated himself in almost every genre of the startup sector. Therefore, he will go down as one of the most influential entrepreneurs of all time. For budding entrepreneurs, he had developed YC Group. Hence, Sam has been influential for the aspiring entrepreneurs too!
