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Sam Altman: This is the best time to build a startup ever
Garry Tan· 2025-06-25 18:16
What surprises you the most with the latest models like 03 and what emergent behaviors or use cases are standing out to you right now. I think we're in a really interesting time. We haven't been in one of these for a while.Uh but like right now we're in an interesting time where the the product overhang relative to what the models like what the models are capable of is here. The products that people have figured out to build is way down here. There's a huge even if the models got no better which of course t ...
Sam Altman's advice to founders: Don't try to rebuild ChatGPT
Garry Tan· 2025-06-24 15:01
One of the classic questions is how do I uh start a startup that doesn't get run over by open AI. That's sort of the number one question that's in our chat. We don't want to run you over.Um look, we're going to do our thing hopefully very well. We are going to try to make the best superent out of chatbt that we can. We're going to add the things that we think we need to add to that.Um, but that is like one small part of the opportunity in front of us. And it makes us sad when people are like, I'm gonna star ...
Steve Jobs' Hidden Blueprint for Insane Success
Garry Tan· 2025-06-23 15:38
Before Steve Jobs was Steve Jobs, he was a phone hacker. Yeah, you heard that right. At 12, a not yet teenager Steve Jobs cold called Bill Hulet, the actual founder of HP, and talked his way into getting free computer parts.At 19, he and W were building illegal devices to hack AT&T's phone network. Here's what nobody tells you, the DNA of Apple. Everything that made it revolutionary was already there in these early hustles.There were three things that he did that nobody teaches in business school. And these ...
Don't aspire to glory. Aspire to be useful.
Garry Tan· 2025-06-22 00:17
Most of the people here I don't think have even managed a single person yet. They're just starting their careers. What would you tell to you know the Elon who's never had to do that yet.I I generally think to try to try to be as useful as possible. It's it may sound try but it's it's so hard to be useful especially to be useful to a lot of people uh where you say the area under the curve of total utility is like how much how useful have you been to your fellow human beings times how many people. Um it like ...
We're in an AI gold rush right now. The gap between what models can do vs what products exist is mas
Garry Tan· 2025-06-21 23:13
What surprises you the most with the latest models like 03 and what emergent behaviors or use cases are standing out to you right now. I think we're in a really interesting time. We haven't been in one of these for a while.Uh but like right now we're in an interesting time where the the product overhang relative to what the models like what the models are capable of is here. The products that people have figured out to build is way down here. There's a huge even if the models got no better, which of course ...
That painful awe you feel toward successful founders? It might be your own untapped potential starin
Garry Tan· 2025-06-21 20:37
[Music] How do you know your golden shadow. One clue is in who you idolize or envy. We tend to project our unrealized strengths onto other people.Have you ever admired a visionary founder or brilliant coder and thought, "They're incredible. I can never do that." That almost painful awe you might feel actually might be your own potential reflected back at you. For founders, this is huge. The qualities you most admire in your heroes might exactly be what you need to unlock in yourself.Maybe you're in awe of a ...
Save Your Startup, Unleash Your Golden Shadow
Garry Tan· 2025-06-12 16:30
The biggest threat to your startup might not be competition or the market. It might be you. This was a painful lesson I learned after my first startup's roller coaster journey.Founders focus on product, market, and code. But there's an overlooked factor that can make or break a company, the founders's own psychology. And I want to help you avoid learning this the hard way.We rarely talk about how what's inside the founder can sabotage or supercharge a startup. Everyone obsesses over strategy and product but ...
This 18 yo Asian American genius got rejected from 16 colleges because of racism
Garry Tan· 2025-06-02 16:30
In February 2025, Nanzong and his son Stanley filed a lawsuit against the University of California system alleging racial discrimination against Asian-Americans in the college admissions process. Stanley Zong was no ordinary applicant. By age 18, he had demonstrated such exceptional coding prowess that Google hired him at an L4 position, typically requiring a PhD or equivalent experience.After rigorous technical interviews with five Google engineers, he created Rapid Sign, a free e-signing service built on ...
Legalize Math in California ft. Jelani Nelson
Garry Tan· 2025-04-30 15:30
https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/ What you can do: find your legislators for an oversight hearing on how lax conflict of interest policies at the CA Department of Education allow revenue-generating curriculum creators undue influence in authoring curricular guidelines for CA public schools Follow Jelani Nelson on X: https://x.com/minilek?s=21 Right now in California, there’s a push to rewrite how math works — not just in the classroom, but in the law. Two bills — AB 1217 and AB 500 — are working their ...