Aretha Franklin

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The most on question i get about wy combinator is, how can you make a decision in a ten minute interview about who to fund? Is it the upper filters of our application process? We have far more qualified people they want to do y c each year than we can fund. By the time we get someone in the room, by the time we can sit across the table and spend ten minutes with somebody, as far as i know, we have never made a big mistake at that stage of the process. And we've looked at tens of thousands, well, in person, we've maybe looked at ten thousand companies,. These personality traits of determination and communication are key.

Founders aren’t superheroes, says Sam Altman.They may play extreme sports, respond to emails within seconds, and start billion-dollar companies, but they are rarely the product of extraordinary circumstance. In fact, they tend to be solidly upper-middle class, reasonably smart, and with loving parents.

So would Sam fund Peter Parker? What about Bruce Wayne?

Tyler and Sam discuss these burning questions and more, including what’s wrong with San Francisco, Napoleon’s underrated skill, nuclear energy, the greatest invention of the Industrial Revolution, his rant against coworking spaces, UBI and AGI, risk and regret, optimism and beauty, and why venture capitalists don’t have superpowers either.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded January 28th, 2019 Other ways to connect

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