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Lightcone · 2 min · Nov 8, 2024

AI gives startups an edge when they move faster than incumbents

Sam Altman · CEO, OpenAI

Sam Altman urges founders to build with AI and ship as models improve, using speed to outpace quarterly planning.

In this episode

Full analysis
  1. 13:42OpenAI bet on deep learning and scale before the field agreedPro pick 6 min
  2. 26:13GPT-4 demand showed when models became commercially useful3 min
  3. 40:33Current models may enable innovation sooner than expected4 min
  4. 22:28Conviction should give way when the evidence arrives3 min
  5. 44:12AI gives startups an edge when they move faster than incumbents2 min
  6. 31:10A failed startup can still compress years of learning3 min
  7. 7:00Founder peers can raise your ambition more than school4 min
  8. 34:04A prior exit helped Altman finance OpenAI's first steps2 min
“the ability to react to how fast the technology is moving, that is the number one edge of a startup”
Sam Altmanat 44:52 · Lightcone
44:52

Takeaways

  1. Build with AI while models are still improving quickly.
  2. A startup's edge is speed, focus and reacting to change.
  3. New technology does not replace an enduring advantage.

About this segment

Sam Altman urges founders to build with AI and ship as models improve, using speed to outpace quarterly planning. He warns that new technology does not replace a durable business advantage.

Sam Altman

Sam Altman is CEO of OpenAI.

Co-founded OpenAI and has led it since 2019, overseeing ChatGPT's launch; formerly president of Y Combinator.

  • Garry Tan, Host · President & CEO, Y Combinator

    Co-founded Posterous and Initialized Capital, an early Coinbase backer.

From “How To Build The Future: Sam Altman”, Nov 8, 2024. Watch the full episode

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

  1. 44:16

    Pretty powerful. Sam, what advice do you have for people watching who, you know, either are about to start or just started their startup? Bet on this tech trend. Like, bet on this trend. It's, this is, we are not near the saturation point. The models are going to get so much better so quickly. What you can do as a startup founder with this versus what you could do without it is so wildly different. And the big companies, even the medium-sized companies, even the startups that are a few years old, they're already on quarterly planning cycles. And Google is on a year or decade planning cycle. I don't know how they even do it anymore. But your advantage with speed and focus and conviction and the ability to react to how fast the technology is moving, that is the number one edge of a startup kind of ever, but especially right now. So I would definitely like build

  2. 45:07

    something with AI and I would definitely like take advantage of the ability to see a new thing and build something that day rather than like put it into a quarterly planning cycle. I guess the other thing I would say is it is easy when there's a new technology platform to say, well, because I'm doing some of the AI, the laws of business don't apply to me. I have this magic technology and so I don't have to build a moat or a competitive edge or a better product. It's because I'm doing AI and you're not. So that's all I need. And that's obviously not true. But what you can get are these short-term explosions of growth by embracing a new technology more quicker than somebody else. And remembering not to fall for that and that you still have to build something of enduring value. I think that's a good thing to keep in mind too. Yeah. Everyone

  3. 46:00

    can build an absolutely incredible demo right now, but... Everyone can build an incredible demo. But building a business, man, that's the brass ring. The rules still apply. You can do it faster than ever before and better than ever before, but you still have to build a business. What are you excited about in 2025 what's to come AGI yeah excited for that uh what am I