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Sam Altman

Sam Altman40 posts

Sam Altman is an American entrepreneur, programmer and venture capitalist, born in 1985. After building up and selling Loopt, a location-based social networking mobile application, he became the president of Y Combinator, a startup accelerator, in 2014.

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30 Oct, 2014

Reddit $50m Series B funding

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Altman leads Reddit’s $50 million Series B round with Andreesen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, as well as individual investors including Leto, Dogg, Kushner, Livingston, Kevin and Julia Hartz, Mariam Naficy, and Reddit CEO Yishan Wong. Valuation is $500 million. Altman:

I’m willing to be very patient. I don’t have any particular timeframe in mind. I believe that the community is very valuable and that the value will continue to increase. Up to the company if they want to share cashflow details, but they run the company efficiently.

10 May, 2014

Quora joins Y Combinator

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Altman invites the question-and-answer site to be the first late-stage participant:

I don’t know if [Quora] will develop a new product that they did not already have in the works as a result of being at Y Combinator…But we think we can help them with certain areas like hiring… And we think they can help our community a great deal.

Jul 2007

$12m Series B funding

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Loopt raises a reported $12 million from its two existing investors, Sequoia Capital and NEA. It is reported to call down $2.25 million from the funding.

16 Aug, 2005

Loopt joins Y Combinator

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Loopt joins the inaugural batch and receives a reported $6,000. Altman says the money-saving culture at Y Combinator, which extends to things like readymade meals, helps develop the location-based mobile app company develop:

That culture of frugality and discipline is really important for the Y Combinator mindset. The start-ups that do well are the ones that are working all the time.