Words of Wisdom for Non-Technical Co-Founders (via Sam Altman)

by Scott Edward Walker on May 16th, 2021

To Our Clients & Friends:  Welcome to our series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.”  Every few weeks we share a favorite video clip of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics.  This week, we again present Sam Altman, the former President of Y Combinator and the CEO of OpenAI.

In this brief interview (from a few years back), Sam shares some solid advice for non-technical founders trying to launch a technical startup, including the following:

• In order to succeed as a non-technical founder, “you have to be able to convince really good technical people to follow you.” (at 0:38)
• If you’re not going to be technical, you have to be great at product and be a great leader.” (at 0:43)
• “I would not start a company with somebody I didn’t already know.” (at 1:18)
• “And I wouldn’t start a company with someone I hadn’t worked with on some project either.” (at 1:28).

I hope it’s helpful.  Cheers, Scott