[eaenki]

I remember waiting for uber next to him in SF one night 10+ years ago. This dude must be the son of some mafia boss or some shit and have some crazy blackmail to raise billions for companies that are copies of products where he’s the 12th company doing the same thing.. never turning a profit or anything and yet raising ever more money. doesn’t make sense otherwise

[ej88]

hes board chair of openai and is ex co-ceo of salesforce, ex cto of facebook, can get a meeting with any exec in F500...

their moat is distribution

[colesantiago]

> their moat is distribution

It is trust.

Everyone in the valley knows Bret Taylor and will back any project he does, even if the product has no distribution.

The same way everyone in the valley knows Naval Ravikant for example, angels and VCs will back any project he does even if his product has no distribution.

[svnt]

Is that really a moat though or something like a firehose of gasoline?

[JumpCrisscross]

> Is that really a moat though or something like a firehose of gasoline?

It's a moat from a defensive perspective. It's a firehose from an offensive one. Outside state capture, most moats are both.

[ej88]

its a moat vs. other startups and it carried them to multi-B valuation

obviously the product needs to deliver and nrr needs to be good in the long run

[paganel]

No mafia ties needed, just your regular Security State plant. From here [1] (I'm sure there's also an official link for it, can't be bothered to check):

> OpenAI has appointed Paul M. Nakasone, a retired general of the US Army and a former head of the National Security Agency (NSA), to its board of directors, the company announced on Thursday.

and the money quote:

> “Artificial intelligence has the potential to have huge positive impacts on people’s lives, but it can only meet this potential if these innovations are securely built and deployed,“ board chair Bret Taylor said in a statement. “General Nakasone’s unparalleled experience in areas like cybersecurity will help guide OpenAI in achieving its mission of ensuring artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.”

[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/anime_titties/comments/1dh4wx4/form...

[downrightmike]

"...achieving its mission of ensuring artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity[that remains after the purge].”

[usaar333]

There's literally a link on the blog post to an article noting they hit $150M ARR.