Insight certainty 3/5 debate potential 2/5

Altman: Top power-law startups require spontaneous word-of-mouth recommendations

Sam Altman · Sam Altman - Startup Investor School Day 1 · Y Combinator · Mar 6, 2018 · at 31:31

Sam Altman, speaking at YC's Startup Investor School, shares his primary heuristic for identifying outlier internet and mobile investments.

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“If I think about all of the most successful internet and mobile startups I heard about those because, this is like true for enterprise and consumer apps, I heard about those because they were so good that, ah, one of my friends spontaneously told me about it. They were not being incentivized to, that was not, they didn't market to me, they didn't advertise to me, it was just like, someone I trusted said, you gotta try this new thing, it's amazing. And, If the startup is not gonna get there I think they will not be at that number one spot on your power law of returns.”

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