zlacker

>>sandsl+(OP)
I'm sure this will get downvoted into oblivion, but why should I or other engineers/entrepreneurs look at Sam Altman as a massive startup success story when his lone startup Loopt never really achieved product-market fit, and ended up in a firesale?

Across 5 funding rounds, Crunchbase lists Loopt as having raised $39 million and then was acquired (acqui-hired?) for $43 million. He didn't create any multiples of value for his investors. Loopt wasn't a breakout hit like so many other YC startups have been. It was certainly one of the first interesting location-based apps in the App Store, but soon was surrounded by other location-based apps and never really appeared to surface and gain traction.

Obviously Sam runs YC now and has dramatically improved it, but in the lens of being an entrepreneur, isn't he still essentially unproven, and not a success story in the startup world?

>>flyosi+ib
At the very least he summarises for us the YC data and puts forward (for free) the hints, the best practices, the recurrent patterns that characterise a good lot of the most successful startups in the world. He is a privileged but educated observer from within who can also relate with his own experience as a non-stellar performer as a startupper, if you want. A facilitator and an aggregator, isn't he?