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Vishu Bheda
ย โขย
Medialย โขย 4d
๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ ๐ธ๐ป๐ผ๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐บ ๐๐น๐๐บ๐ฎ๐ป ๐บ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐๐๐ฃ๐ง. But at 19, Altman dropped out of Stanford & raised $30M to build a social media. Then, he became President of Silicon Valley's $600B "Harvard for startups". Under his leadership, it grew 5X bigger. Here's how Sam Altman shaped tech more than you realize: ๐ $๐ฏ๐ฌ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ ๐ง๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐๐น๐บ๐ผ๐๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ถ๐น๐ฒ๐ฑ Born in Chicago in 1985, Altman got his first computer at 8. By 19, he left Stanford to build Looptโa location-sharing app. Investors loved the idea. Sequoia Capital backed him with $30M. But there was one problem. ๐๐ก๐ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ฅ๐ ๐ฐ๐๐ฌ๐งโ๐ญ ๐ซ๐๐๐๐ฒ. โข Smartphones werenโt common. โข GPS drained too much battery. In 2012, Loopt was sold for $43Mโfar below expectations. But this failure led to something much biggerโฆ ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ช๐ต๐ผ ๐๐๐ถ๐น๐ ๐๐ถ๐น๐น๐ถ๐ผ๐ป-๐๐ผ๐น๐น๐ฎ๐ฟ ๐ฆ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐๐๐ฝ๐ Y Combinator (YC) was the launchpad for companies like Airbnb and Reddit. In 2014, its founder, Paul Graham, needed a new leader. He chose ๐๐-๐ฒ๐๐๐ซ-๐จ๐ฅ๐ ๐๐ฅ๐ญ๐ฆ๐๐ง. Why? 1. He was part of YCโs first-ever batch in 2005. 2. He had been a YC mentor since 2011. 3. Graham called him โone of the smartest people I know.โ Under Altman, YC exploded: โข From funding 200 startups per year โ 1,000+ โข Portfolio value grew from $65B โ $300B โข Nearly half of YC founders were now from outside the U.S. His golden rule? โ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฐ ๐๐% ๐๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐๐๐ค.โ It forced founders to think bigger, move faster, and build products people truly loved. But Altman had an even bigger vision. ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐๐ผ๐น๐๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป While running YC, Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015. He believed AI was the future. By 2019, he made his boldest moveโleaving YC to go all in on OpenAI. His most controversial decision? Turning OpenAI into a โcapped-profitโ companyโensuring AI stayed beneficial for humanity. The world was skeptical. Then ChatGPT launched in 2022: โข 1M users in 5 days. โข 100M users in 2 months. โข A $10B investment from Microsoft. Altman changed startups. He changed AI. And heโs just getting started. Follow Vishu Bheda for more such business and tech insights!
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