Sam Altman: Very Few Investors Actually Step Up to Help
Sam Altman commented on venture capitalists, stating that the number of investors who truly show up and try to help is incredibly low.
He specifically named Josh Kushner as the absolute MVP investor, describing him as tirelessly working and feeling like he has been helping for years, being the only one who consistently provides significant assistance.
Altman emphasized that sustained, relentless, and full-hearted support is surprisingly rare, but founders genuinely appreciate this kind of support, and it indeed drives progress.
This viewpoint was shared by Patrick O'Shaughnessy.
Driven by events, top founders' public evaluations of investors' actual value influence the entrepreneurial ecosystem's perception, with funds and reputations flowing towards those recognized as "hands-on" investors. The beneficiaries are VCs that emphasize deep support, while the pressured ones are traditional models that only provide capital without ongoing involvement.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
As the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman has direct experience with multiple rounds of high financing and governance challenges, giving him insight into the role of investors. Josh Kushner, through Thrive Capital, is known for long-term investments in tech and AI companies and is recognized for his active involvement, having deeply participated in the operational support of several high-growth companies.
In terms of capital pathways, some VCs are shifting from purely financial investments to becoming "all-weather operating partners," expanding their resource contributions from funds to time, networks, and crisis management. The motivation is to secure high-quality founder relationships through actual help in a competitive AI financing environment, thereby increasing the probability of project success and advantages in subsequent rounds.
Similar to the early models of Benchmark or a16z emphasizing "platform services," a few individual investors stand out with high-intensity support; currently, founders are in a phase of stricter screening for "truly useful" investors amid the AI boom.
This essentially reflects a reconstruction of relationships within capital concentration. After an oversupply of funds, differentiation shifts towards non-capital contributions, with the mechanism being that continuous proactive support becomes a scarce resource, allowing a few investors to establish irreplaceable trust and influence through time and action.
ABAB News · Law of Cognition
Very few investors actually help.
Sustained support is scarcer than capital.
Hands-on VCs ultimately push the needle forward.