Alexander Small’s Post

Sam Altman has been asked to leave OpenAI. This serves as a stark reminder to founders about the brutality of the startup world. Navigating startup board meetings can feel like a real-time bullet dodge for CEOs. Take notes from Sama, who built a venture from ground zero to $80 billion, a journey that resulted in one of the greatest inventions of the decade and made him a pioneer in the era of generative transformers. Founders, do a double check on your SHA, vetos, and Class C. If you find yourself on a board without founder experience, sometimes it's best to just enjoy the almonds on the table. https://lnkd.in/ehe-uZ_K

Investor Brief! The discussion surrounding AI is ongoing, and its rapid growth demands careful consideration. The question of whether AI will eventually replace numerous jobs in the far future. While the answer is likely affirmative, the process will take some time to unfold. Currently, we are merely at the starting line of this transformative journey. This article provides valuable insights and a fascinating perspective from CEO Thomas Dohmke of GitHub who is at the forefront of this remarkable evolution. Dualboot Partners Varnum LLP StartupNation Insperity Rehmann BenePro Chase for Business Hylant #ai #aiinvesting #aiapplications #aiintegration #aitechnology #startups #stratup

New Post: Sam Altman hints at OpenAI boardroom drama in blog post - OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has long dispensed advice to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, having led the startup accelerator Y Combinator before his current role leading what is arguably the world’s most important artificial-intelligence company. But with his latest round of advice, given in a post on his personal blog on Thursday, it’s hard not to think about the recent turmoil at OpenAI that saw Altman ousted then quickly reinstated as CEO last month, a boardroom drama that captivated Silicon Valley and much of the business and technology world. OpenAI’s nonprofit board abruptly fired Altman last month, giving only vague reasons. The move blindsided among others Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, whose company has invested billions into the ChatGPT maker. After five tumultuous days in which investors and employees rallied around Altman, it became clear that he would be reinstated as CEO and the board would be revamped. Earlier this month, Altman told Trevor Noah on the What Now? podcast about his short-lived but intense ordeal: “I’m still a little bit in shock and a little bit just trying to pick up the pieces. I’m sure as I have time to sit and process this I’ll have a lot more feelings about it.”  In the blog post yesterday, some of Altman’s pieces of advice were pretty standard (“Optimism, obsession, self-belief, raw horsepower and personal connections are how things get started”) while others seemed like they might refer to last month’s chaos—and may be part of the processing that Altman mentioned to Noah. Of course, this is only speculation, and Altman may not have been referring to the OpenAI chaos or even had it in mind when writing his post. Fortune has reached out to the company and will update this story with any response. But with knowledge of his ouster, it’s difficult not to read some of the advice without thinking about recent events at the company, including, “Get back up and keep going.” In particular, the seventh item reads: “Fight bullshit and bureaucracy every time you see it and get other people to fight it too. Do not let the org chart get in the way of people working productively together.” Altman certainly fought against the decision to fire him as colleagues and investors rallied around him. Two days after his dismissal, Altman posted an image of himself wearing a guest badge in the OpenAI office, writing: “First and last time I ever wear one of these.” And just hours after it, fellow cofounder Greg Brockman resigned in protest from his role as OpenAI president. Soon, OpenAI colleagues were repeating the line “OpenAI is nothing without its people” in X posts, with Altman responding with a heart emoji. That emoji became something of a rallying cry among employees in the days that followed. Another piece of advice from Altman: “Communicate clearly and concisely.” When they fired him, the board sai

The Top 9 Habits of Successful Founders by OpenAI's Sam Altman #FoundersWisdom 🤝 Follow us on Discord 🔜: https://lnkd.in/gt823Zd3 _ ❇️ Summary: Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, was interviewed by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, on the qualities that make a successful founder. Altman highlighted the importance of founders being hands-on with customer support and actively engaging with users. The iterative cycle of talking to customers, building products, and observing user behavior is key to improving and growing a company. Altman emphasized the need for long-term commitment to projects, building a strong team, caring about the customer experience, and finding a clear mission to drive the company's success. Hashtags: #chatGPT #StartupWisdom #CEOInsights

SO MANY companies are in trouble after relying on OpenAI to power their own customer-facing features. I think we've been too focused on the internals of OpenAI, and not enough on the implications for customers. These customers all relied on the most basic assumption in business. That you can count on a business to want to keep making money. If you sign up for something, you expect that as long as you keep paying, the company will be happy to keep selling to you. Frankly, this is how Delivery Layer is able to compete as a bootstrapped startup. At some point with every deal, someone brings up the fact we're not venture funded. I always respond with, "While there are a lot of benefits to venture, one of the benefits of being bootstrapped is that you have a reasonable expectation that as long as you keep paying me, I'm going to stay around. You don't need to worry about the business disappearing because I can't raise another round of funding." OpenAI played the venture lottery and won. Nobody worried they were going to disappear. Because everyone relied on the fact that, after winning that lottery, they were actually going to cash in the ticket. You don't expect them to blow up billions of dollars of enterprise value for a vague goal of improved AI safety - at the explicit expense of the people who are paying them. If I was a customer, I'd be extremely nervous right now and starting to look at other providers.

I recently rebuilt my Fierce Performance Marketing LLC website with an AI assistant. The process was easy, and the output was much better than anticipated. TechCrunch covered the emerging market of #AIcodeassistant startups. It noted a Gartner survey that found over half of enterprise organizations are currently piloting or leveraging AI code assistants. It will be interesting to watch the integration of AI into traditional #developer service models and its potential impacts on agencies. Thoughts?

Laredo Labs: AI-Powered Code Generation Startup Raises $8.5M in Seed Funding-Kyle Wiggers Laredo Labs, a startup founded in 2022 by Mark Gabel and Daniel Lord, is developing an AI-driven platform for code generation, competing in the growing field of generative coding tools. Using an AI model trained on data from around a hundred million software projects, Laredo writes code based on natural language commands. Despite the legal challenges associated with generative AI tools, Laredo aims to offer an ambitious AI-driven developer experience. The startup has raised $8.5 million in a seed round led by Radical Ventures and Horizons Ventures, with plans to expand its team and further develop its platform. Daniel Lord #LaredoLabs #AI #CodeGeneration #StartupFunding #TechCrunch

Fired by his board on Friday, hired by Microsoft on Sunday ... and returning to OpenAI on Wednesday! Sam Altman is returning to OpenAI as its chief executive. I think this went down as the largest value creation and value destruction in a decade. The high-profile AI startup just announced, a dramatic reversal that caps five days of intense negotiations, debates and convincing following the sudden dismissal of Altman last week from the startup he co-founded. OpenAI, which is the most valuable U.S. startup. The company said it has reached an “agreement in principle” for Altman’s return. The startup is also reforming its board, eliminating several members who faced intense scrutiny for their decision last week. Board members be aware. Letting go of the pioneer builders isn't always the answer. It's wild that 700 of the 770 team members said they would resign if Sam wasn't brought back. Build a culture so ALL-IN on the team that if you were forced to leave... the team would do WIT to get you back. Proven by Altman. #openai #microsoft #samaltman #openaichatgpt #ceo

🚀 Exciting News in the World of AI, ML, and Big Data! 🚀 The AI Grant has incubated 60 companies and is now open for applications again! In a recent study, open-source projects are proving to be a significant opportunity for traction and growth for AI startups. Notable projects like Rowy, Replicate, Chroma, and more have seen remarkable success by leveraging the open-source community. If you're planning to launch an AI project, don't miss the chance to submit for the AI Grant before February 16th. Get inspired by the success stories and submit your own project for a chance to gain funding and exposure. Check out the full list of previous open-source submissions at oss.fyi/aigrant. #AI #MachineLearning #OpenSource #AIGrant #BigData