Sam Altman says Paul Graham and Peter Thiel taught him a key lesson about investing

Aug 02, 2026 05:03 PM - 1 month ago 543

A composite image of Sam Altman and Paul Graham

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Silicon Valley luminaries taught him really to beryllium good pinch opinionated retired erstwhile making investments.

"The point I really learned from Peter Thiel and Paul Graham, some successful 2 different ways, which is that the very champion companies, the very champion finance opportunities are almost ne'er the ones that look really popular," Altman said during a caller section of the "Invest Like The Best" podcast.

Altman said pursuing the crowd tin thief to a point, but it's only erstwhile you prime companies that whitethorn look unpopular successful the infinitesimal that you unfastened yourself up to a perchance transformative opportunity.

"You tin do okay conscionable pursuing the inclination and being a small early, but to do spectacularly well, you benignant of almost ever person to do things that are not what everybody other is doing," he said. "You cannot beryllium benignant of pursuing the caller wave."

Recently, the OpenAI CEO has reflected connected what he learned during his days starring Y Combinator, the famed startup incubator which Graham cofounded successful 2005, and successful the Silicon Valley hustle culture.

Altman said that Graham taught him that being a startup investor is "like being a formation instructor." Founders request guidance, but the accepted exemplary of a coach lecturing isn't what's going to really help.

"The personification who sits adjacent to you saying like, 'Do this, don't do this,' that worked, you missed that thing, or, you're making these mistakes, and I'm conscionable going to talk you astir this one," Altman said, adding he appreciated "that very hands-on benignant of, here's wherever to nonstop this benignant of for illustration Brownian mobility energy."

Altman said memories of his early days successful Silicon Valley came backmost erstwhile OpenAI had the realization aft GPT-4 that they were connected "this exponential of exemplary improvement" they started calling everyone they could to unafraid the compute they needed.

"We started calling the clouds. We started calling spot fabs. We started calling power providers and everyone's like, 'You're wholly crazy. This is impossible. No manufacture has ever moved for illustration this. We've been around. There's these booms and busts. It's not going to spell up successful a consecutive line. This is reckless,'" Altman recalled.

The experience, Altman said, reminded him of "fundraising for an early-stage startup."

"Most group show you no, but each you request is 1 aliases 2 yeses," he said. "Most group told america no. And we sewage 1 aliases 2 yeses and we were capable to commencement building."