Sam Altman: 1985-2023

May 13, 2026 · 34 min

About this episode

This episode explores Sam Altman's rise from app developer to a powerful figure in business and technology.

I’ll open up with an excerpt from a fantastic New Yorker article on Altman: "Altman has a relentless will to power that, even among industrialists who put their names on spaceships, sets him apart- and according to an OpenAI board member: “He’s unconstrained by truth. He has two traits that are almost never seen in the same person. The first is a strong desire to please people, to be liked in any given interaction. The second is almost a sociopathic lack of concern for the consequences that may come from deceiving someone.” So in this episode I look at Altman’s progression from app developer to a massively successful investor- eventually accumulating a $3.5 billion fortune from his investments, to taking over and growing Y Combinator, the most influential incubator and to then battling Elon Musk to eventually take charge of Open AI and by the time we get to the end, at the age of just 38 he’s become one of the most influential and powerful people in business and technology. It’s a cracking story- enjoy.

People in this episode

Host: Caemin

Topics covered

business
technology
investing
entrepreneurship
leadership

Keywords

Sam Altman
OpenAI
Y Combinator
Elon Musk
investor
technology
business

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: OpenAI, Y Combinator