Jack Altman

Most VCs think they can spot greatness but they're probably delusional

Jack Altman questions whether VCs really have superior ability to identify great founders. While acknowledging that some people genuinely have better taste for spotting talent, he argues that most investors overestimate their own abilities - similar to how most people think they're above-average drivers.

How do you know if you're actually good at picking startups?

Jack Altman reflects on his early venture investing track record and whether he can assess his own judgment by comparing deals he backed versus ones he passed on. The discussion explores the challenge of measuring investment decision-making skills when you're transitioning from founder to investor.

Most VCs won't give harsh feedback - here's why that's broken

Jack Altman argues that VCs avoid giving direct, harsh feedback to founders because it's easier to be a cheerleader and there are few incentives for brutal honesty. He emphasizes that building high-trust relationships between founders and board members is crucial to creating a safe space for difficult but necessary feedback.

From unicorn founder to VC: Why the day-to-day is still unclear

Jack Altman reflects on the stark contrast between running a startup and being a VC, admitting he's still figuring out what makes a good day or week as a venture investor. He discusses the uncertainty around structuring VC work compared to the clearer operational demands of building a company like Lattice.

DoorDash CTO reveals how AI agents will transform commerce industry

Jack Altman discusses the risks of AI agents making personal decisions like food ordering, while highlighting DoorDash CTO Andy Fang's bullish view that agents will be transformative to commerce. The conversation explores the tension between automation convenience and maintaining customer control over personal preferences.

Jack Altman predicts 30-40 million US jobs could disappear in four years

Jack Altman discusses potential AI-driven job displacement across customer support, legal, and bookkeeping roles, estimating 30-40 million jobs at risk within four years when including autonomous driving. He tempers this prediction by pointing to Waymo as an example of how revolutionary tech often takes longer to scale than initially projected.

Jack Altman has data from 10,000 restaurants proving people want AI food agents

Jack Altman argues that AI agents for food recommendations aren't just a nice-to-have but a proven market need, citing data from over 10,000 restaurants. He envisions agents that combine your personal order history, price preferences, and real-time social media trends to deliver superior restaurant recommendations. The conversation touches on whether this represents a fundamentally disruptive opportunity worth building a new company around.

SaaS apps becoming dumb databases while AI captures the incremental value

A discussion on how AI disruption threatens to commoditize existing SaaS applications by making them into basic databases, while new AI-powered solutions capture the incremental value from marginal improvements. The speaker shares a real example of reducing their team from 12 to 2 people while maintaining 8-figure revenue through AI automation, illustrating the concept of 'Ghost GDP' - economic value created without traditional human labor.

revenue thing with no acquirer. Maybe if you had $550,000,000 revenue things in roughly the same market, you could build a $250,000,000 thing that would be profitable enough and or get some growth at...