Assertion certainty 4/5 debate potential 4/5

Garry Tan: Elon Musk proved Twitter didn't need 80% of its staff

Garry Tan · Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan: Turning Ambitious Misfits into Founders · Apr 29, 2025 · at 1:25:10

Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan discusses Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter (now X) and the viability of running tech platforms with lean engineering teams.

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“Elon came in and quickly asked, like, 80 or 90% of the people, and it turns out you didn't need 80 or 90% of the people, so.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

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Assertion Not checkable as stated
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