Deal Making and Networking in Silicon Valley

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Sam is a skilled deal maker and networker who has made significant investments in companies like Y Combinator and open AI. He has brought in notable figures like Reed Hoffman to join the board. In Silicon Valley, where conflicts of interest are common, Sam's ability to make deals without conflicts is highly valued.

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Today’s show:

Sunny Madra joins Jason for an emergency podcast! They break down the business implications of Altman leaving OpenAI (1:23), speculation around why he was fired (10:27), ongoing developments like Greg Brockman quitting, and more! (23:24)

Time stamps:

(0:00) Sunny Madra goes live with Jason for an emergency Pod!

(1:23) Sam Altman ousted from OpenAI and Greg Brockman quits!

(6:44) The board’s accusations against Sam Altman

(10:27) Speculating “no conflict, no interest”

(12:16) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at ⁠https://vanta.com/twist(13:22)⁠ Sam's extraordinary deal-making, lack of OpenAI shares, and the possible impact from Humane launch

(23:24) The OpenAI and Microsoft relationship

(29:40) ⁠Lemon.io⁠ - Get $2000 off your first hire at ⁠http://lemon.io/hire⁠

(30:49) More speculation and anonymous theories

(34:29) The impact of founder-led switching to not founder-led

(37:10) Equinix - Join the Equinix Startup Program for up to $100K in credits and much more at https://deploy.equinix.com/startups/⁠

(38:30) Questions from live audience

(56:12) Final thoughts

Follow Sunny: ⁠https://twitter.com/sundeep⁠

Great 2023 interviews: ⁠Steve Huffman⁠, ⁠Brian Chesky⁠, ⁠Aaron Levie⁠, ⁠Sophia Amoruso⁠, ⁠Reid Hoffman⁠, ⁠Frank Slootman⁠, ⁠Billy McFarland⁠

Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: ⁠https://substack.com/@calacanis⁠

Follow Jason:

Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/jason⁠