Assertion Not checkable as stated
Parker Conrad unfairly took the fall for non-ethical Zenefits mistakes
“I think there were some small mistakes made, but they were company-wide. They were under all departments, not just his. Everyone knew about it. They weren't ethical mistakes, and he sort of, you know, took the fall.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Max Altman predicts climate tech startups will not produce great VC returns
“Yeah, I think we wanted to be somewhat involved with it, and there were a lot of amazing founders building in it, and they're gonna build great things, but they're not gonna get us great VC returns.”
Insight
A seed lead only taking pro rata in Series A signals failure
“I fully believe if they're like, hey, Sequoia led our seed, and I'm like, hey, are they doing your A, and they're like, Well, they're doing their pro rata. I'm like, this is not a good company. Like, objectively is not a good company.”
Insight
Tech workers should ignore mission and join the fastest-growing company
“Don't care about the product, don't care about anything, just go work at the fastest growing company because winning feels great.”
Insight
Altman: Traditional VC firm hierarchies distort associate incentives away from fund returns
“I don't know if they're fucked up cultures, but I don't think they're incentivized to have the best returns. If you're an associate at a firm, and you're maybe there for five or six years, your job is to get a deal done that's gonna get marked up quickly so yo…”
Insight
Max Altman: Seed funds competing for Series A face adverse selection
“I'm clearly gonna Lose the deals that I want to lose, and if I win them, it's probably not the ones that I want.”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Andreessen Horowitz led only two seed rounds for billion-dollar AI startups
“Of the first 40 of them, only one person had two lead checks, and that was Andreessen, and no one else had two, and if you look through the smattering, there are, you know, Green Oaks is in there, a lot of Gill's in there, but there's a lot of other random peo…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Max Altman predicts numerous $100B AI startup exits by 2033
“Like, not to be on the AI hype train, but I do think we are going to have a lot of exits Eight years from now, around the hundred billion dollar mark.”
Insight
Altman: Founders care about investor portfolio prestige, not check size
“And founders don't care if you did a 25 K check or a million dollar check at the seed. They just think that you've invested in the best companies.”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Max Altman says his earlier venture funds achieved 4x DPI
“I was fortunate enough to have data from the earlier funds to say, we've absolutely crushed it, and we're now at like about four X DPI. I think we can get to five or six, and we knocked it out of the park.”
Insight
Altman advises seed funds to model receiving only 70-80% of pro rata
“So I think a lot of the times that I've learned is like, hey, model in the pro rata, but you're only gonna get 70 or 80% of it.”
Opinion
Founders should always accept an investment offer from Sequoia Capital
“I think it's really hard if you get Sequoia to offer you money and be on your cap table and have that amazing brand halo effect to not take it, and I think someone always should.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Altman: Capital supply grew 10x while top-tier startups only grew 2-3x
“There's now like hundreds of billions of capital chasing slightly more companies. I think the experiment we're going through right now and went through in 2020 is like, hey, if we put 10 times as much capital into the market, there better be 10 times as much g…”
Insight
Altman: Building products close to OpenAI's roadmap is naive
“If you have, like, the naivety to think you're gonna build something that's really close to what OpenAI is building, And they're not going to build it. You're crazy. Like, you know what I mean? So I think we've really stayed away from things that OpenAI will e…”
Insight
Altman: Seed VCs have a 15-year window before being replaced
“Yeah, we have to compete with them, we have to do better than them, there's not room for all of us, and Frankly, I kind of think, Harry, you were younger when you started, so you might have a little more time. I got, like, 15 years of this until I'm really goo…”
Disclosure
Max Altman admits holding Gusto past its $10B valuation was a mistake
“It might not have hurt to sell Gusto. I think Gusto's a great business, but I think, you know, they were valued at ten billion at one point, and I think they're still gonna be a strong business. I don't know if they're gonna have explosive growth from there.”
Opinion
Max Altman calls Keith Rabois the smartest non-family VC investor
“Keith Raboy. I mean, whatever people want to say about him, I think he's extremely smart.”
Opinion
Max Altman calls Parker Conrad the best sales and product leader
“He's crazy, but he's the best salesperson and the best product person that I've ever met in my life.”
Insight
Altman: Founders Must Rely on Intuition Over Customer Requests
“The founder needs to have intuition of what they want. The customers aren't going to know.”
Disclosure
Max Altman left family funds to launch Saga Ventures out of ego
“So I, you know, I left after doing three funds with some combination of Sam and Jack to build out my own firm just for ego and pride, to be completely honest.”
Disclosure
Hydrazine Capital missed $2B by distributing Reddit stock post-lockup
“It was about nine billion when the lockup ended. That was tough. I think the market cap's about thirty-nine billion now. I think it's pretty public. The fund owned just about seven percent. You can do the math. That's about maybe two billion of gains that coul…”
Opinion
Max Altman calls H-1B restrictions the worst US tech policy decision
“Maybe, maybe the worst decision related to tech that this administration has had. Like, first off, why would you not want an amazing engineer immigrating to your country? Just like, straight up, we want all of the best, smartest people going to work in our cou…”
Disclosure
Max Altman avoids asking brother Sam Altman for OpenAI roadmap leaks
“I don't want to put him in a weird position where he's leaking anything. It just, it doesn't seem like good for OpenAI, and it doesn't feel good. Like, I kind of want, and you might say this is stupid, to like, earn this on my own right.”
Insight
Altman: Mid-sized $700M VC funds face severe structural challenges
“I think it's really challenging to be like a seven hundred million dollar fund. Now I think you're either a really massive, powerful platform like an Andreessen or a GC Or you just have the legacy cachet, like a Sequoia or a Kleiner, or you have to be a boutiq…”
