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This Week in Startups

BREAKING: Sam Altman fired from OpenAI, chaos ensues! | E1851

This Week in Startups

Jason Calacanis

Technology

4.21.4K Ratings

🗓️ 18 November 2023

⏱️ 60 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This Week in Startups is brought to you by…

Vanta. Compliance and security shouldn't be a deal-breaker for startups to win new business. Vanta makes it easy for companies to get a SOC 2 report fast. TWiST listeners can get $1,000 off for a limited time at ⁠vanta.com/twist⁠

Lemon.io⁠. Get access to Lemon Hire, a platform with more than 80,000 pre-vetted engineers that you can interview within 48 hours. Get $2000 off your first hire at ⁠http://lemon.io/hire⁠ today!

The Equinix Startup program offers a hybrid infrastructure solution for startups, including up to $100K in credits and personalized consultations and guidance from the Equinix team. Go to https://deploy.equinix.com/startups/
to apply today.

Today’s show:

Sunny Madra joins Jason for an emergency podcast! They break down the business implications of Altman leaving OpenAI (1:23), speculation around why he was fired (10:27), ongoing developments like Greg Brockman quitting, and more! (23:24)

*

Time stamps:

(0:00) Sunny Madra goes live with Jason for an emergency Pod!

(1:23) Sam Altman ousted from OpenAI and Greg Brockman quits!

(6:44) The board’s accusations against Sam Altman

(10:27) Speculating “no conflict, no interest”

(12:16) Vanta - Get $1000 off your SOC 2 at ⁠https://vanta.com/twist(13:22)⁠ Sam's extraordinary deal-making, lack of OpenAI shares, and the possible impact from Humane launch

(23:24) The OpenAI and Microsoft relationship

(29:40) ⁠Lemon.io⁠ - Get $2000 off your first hire at ⁠http://lemon.io/hire⁠

(30:49) More speculation and anonymous theories

(34:29) The impact of founder-led switching to not founder-led

(37:10) Equinix - Join the Equinix Startup Program for up to $100K in credits and much more at https://deploy.equinix.com/startups/⁠

(38:30) Questions from live audience

(56:12) Final thoughts

*

Follow Sunny: ⁠https://twitter.com/sundeep⁠

*

Great 2023 interviews: ⁠Steve Huffman⁠, ⁠Brian Chesky⁠, ⁠Aaron Levie⁠, ⁠Sophia Amoruso⁠, ⁠Reid Hoffman⁠, ⁠Frank Slootman⁠, ⁠Billy McFarland⁠

Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: ⁠https://substack.com/@calacanis⁠

*

Follow Jason:

Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/jason⁠

Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jason⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis⁠

*

Follow TWiST:

Substack: ⁠https://twistartups.substack.com⁠

Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/TWiStartups⁠

YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin⁠

*

Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: ⁠https://www.founder.university/podcast

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Yeah, I'm just processing it as quickly as you are as it's coming.

0:02.6

Yes. And so this would be the equivalent, I think, of Larry and Sergei being fired,

0:07.8

or Larry being fired and Sergei quitting moments later.

0:11.2

That's basically what we've witnessed

0:12.9

is a $90 billion company.

0:14.8

It's had tens of billions of dollars invested in it.

0:17.4

The first fastest company to 100 million users.

0:21.5

And let's be honest, it's changed, it's rocked the entire industry, it's changed the

0:26.0

entire technology landscape and it's obviously changed the world.

0:29.8

So then the question becomes, why?

0:32.4

What happened and why? This week in startups is brought to you by

0:36.1

Vanta. Compliance and security shouldn't be a dealbreaker for startups to win new business.

0:41.7

Vanta makes it easy for companies to get a Sock-2 report fast.

0:45.6

Twist listeners can get $1,000 off for a limited time at vanta.com slash

0:51.5

twist. Lemon dot i.com slash Twist.

0:52.8

Lemon.io.

0:54.4

Get access to Lemon Hire, a platform with more than 80,000 pre-vetted engineers

0:59.6

that you can interview within 48 hours.

1:02.0

Get $2,000 off your first hire at lemon.io slash hire today.

1:07.2

And the Equinix startup program provides hybrid infrastructure solutions for startups,

1:13.1

including up to $100,000 in credits

1:15.9

and personalized consultations and guidance

...

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