Yesterday Podcast Jack Altman | Investment Banking to Billion Dollar Startup
Aug 15, 2025
Jack Altman, founder of the billion-dollar company Lattice and Alt Capital, shares his journey from investment banking to entrepreneurship. He discusses the challenges of finding product-market fit and the lessons learned through painful pivots. Jack reflects on his competitive upbringing and the role of parental support in shaping his confidence. He emphasizes the importance of authenticity in leadership, his approach to investing in young founders, and how overcoming rejection has built his resilience. Listeners gain insights into Jack's views on tech, team dynamics, and the future of investing.
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Telling Partner Before The Grind
- Jack decided to start Lattice knowing it would be consuming and that his long-distance relationship would suffer.
- His fiancée supported the risk and that distance made early grind phases easier.
Kill Sunk-Cost Projects Early
- Stop projects you don't enjoy or that won't produce significant value regardless of sunk cost.
- Regularly inspect work and kill more initiatives than you keep to preserve focus.
Early Teespring Lessons
- Jack joined Teespring via YC and experienced rapid growth with strong talent agglomeration.
- That burst taught him both the thrill of startups and platform dependency lessons.