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jasonlbaptiste

"If Sam Altman wants to go public, Sam Altman will go public"

...

"If Sam Altman wants to whoop Chuck Norris' ass, Sam Altman will whoop Chuck Norris' ass"

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What makes Sam Altman so amazing? What attributes does Sam Altman have that make pg such a fan?

I was annoyed by the reporter's "holding back?" attempt.

We have asked that many times. Paul still doesn't answer, probably because he thinks that signing multiple deals with phone companies speaks for itself.

(I've asked repeatedly why PG focuses on sama rather than Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame, and many interesting arguments have sprung up from my making that comparison, but sadly Paul hasn't joined in.)

Sam and Mark seem quite similar actually. The reason I talk about Sam more is that I know him so much better.

What sets Sam apart (and Mark as far as I can tell) is great force of character.

Fair enough.

In case anyone hasn't seen this yet: http://www.paulgraham.com/5founders.html

The list has some questionable entries even before you get to #5. At that point it just seems comical. But I could be wrong, of course.

In the first paragraph I explained the criterion I used to make the list. It's just the 5 founders who've influenced me the most.

Right, I saw that. That's why I didn't just call the list wrong outright. But I do wonder why the founders on that list influenced you more than all the others.

And the discussion thread, in which I ask this question for the first of many times: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=542291

Half a year ago, jeez. It feels much longer ago than that. It's one of those cyclical HN debates that I always feel compelled to say my line in. Kind of like the Metafilter threads where certain users always have to say certain lines.

Yeah, it's a puzzle. But then, of the five entries, I think only one really belongs there. (No prize for guessing which one...)

A friend of mine recently hired on to Loopt, and said that Sam was the reason that he signed on to the company.

"Sam's seemed like the kind of guy who could overcome pretty much any obstacle thrown in his path. I wanted to work on a company with a guy like that"

Is Loopt wildly profitable yet? After 4 years seems like it should be raking it in :/

Signing deals is cool, but do they equate to revenue and profit?

Thats a very good point. There is always a huge gap between signing deals/PR and booking revenue, more so when you are dealing with bigger players like operators.

Its unfortunate that nobody here talks about real numbers...

Private companies rarely share all their revenue / profit numbers. It's amusing that lots of HN outsiders speculate and wildly miss on how YC companies are actually doing in real terms.

Amazon took more than 4 years, and nobody is complaining now. Loopt is a success now, and will be very successful in the future, and it is very impressive considering Sam started it when he was an undergrad.

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