Sam Altman

Sam Altman says the most important piece of advice he’s ever received came from Paul Graham, who last year hand-picked Altman to take over as head of his Y Combinator, the acclaimed startup incubator whose graduates include Airbnb and Dropbox: “Make something people want.” But the 30 year-old Altman – an alum of YC’s first founder class, where he launched his location-based social network app Loopt – has added an unofficial addendum, about making something people want more accessible. In his short time at the helm, Altman has increased the number and type of companies accepted into YC (222 graduates this year), held ‘Startup School’ seminars outside of Silicon Valley (most notably in London, plus an online version in partnership with Stanford) and reached out to women and minority entrepreneurs. “My goal is to double our impact every year.”