Interview with Sam Altman from the High Growth Handbook
I consider sama to be an extraordinary investor and thinker (I know this is the most consensus thing one could say on HN). The personal bets on Boom, Helion Energy, Cruise and many others are really phenomenal (even the <i>re-</i>bet on Reddit) -- not just for being early&#x2F;contrarian for their time, but also necessary for the world for these companies to succeed.<p>The highlights of this interview imo are the following pieces of advice:<p>1) get a coach sooner than later<p>2) always keep revisiting what is urgent vs important and keep prioritizing; if in &#x27;war-mode&#x27; then users, team, revenue above all else; ignore things that don&#x27;t amount to much (potential candidates: investor updates, press, conferences etc -- they are not more valuable than users)<p>3) don&#x27;t get too far away from the product (some things cannot be delegated early on)<p>4) &quot;boards hate surprises...and boards hate feeling like you’re trying to hide bad news&quot;. Be open. Ask for help.<p>Really great points.<p>I feel that the point about the role of the CEO in a downturn is under-explored in this interview (felt rushed). This is rich territory (and relevant). The discussion about specific examples of things that don&#x27;t merit CEO time veers into &#x27;made-up territory&#x27; quickly and doesn&#x27;t feel relevant -- e.g. some &quot;[CEOs] then stop going to the executive team meeting (that’s a very bad idea)&quot; -- I don&#x27;t see as many companies as these two, but no CEO stops going to an executive team meeting (infact, bad CEOs go to too many of those! as they enjoy &#x27;playing CEO&#x27; :)). If a CEO stops going to an executive team meeting, that is quite counter-intuitive and interesting in many respects in of itself (e.g. there is a fire; CEO doesn&#x27;t want to be CEO etc) :-) I feel Elad should have pressed more as an interviewer rather than rushing to the next point.<p>Overall, always good to hear sama&#x27;s views -- he is an incredibly important investor of our age (my prediction). And Elad thanks for working on this book. For a few $$ everyone can get this wisdom -- you did a great service for entrepreneurs. Congrats on the launch.