Uncapped with Jack Altman
· Jack Altman, Garry Tan
[00:00:00] S0: I completely agree. I think if capital and management don’t take some responsibility there, it’s not just unemployment, there’s reduced employment. There’s the whole world getting more expensive. Home prices are going up while there might be pressure on wages because you can do more cheaply with AI. So you have inflation happening alongside wage pressure at the same time. I do think it’s a more real thing than our echo chamber wants to… Again, I’m totally for it too, but I think it’s an important thing. [00:00:00] S3: That’s why we’ve been vocal about this idea of little tech. We have Luther Lowe, who used to work at Yelp, and he’s in DC full-time fighting for startups to be able to actually train AI models and enter markets. Frankly, I know we have lots of friends at Apple and Alphabet, and we have huge respect for those companies… Once in a while you’ll see in the press, “Oh yeah, we submitted an amicus about Apple and Alphabet”. It’s not because we hate those guys, but because we need tech to allow new startups and new entrants to come in. So to me it’s all very consistent. We need to be way more aggressive about what our products and services should be and can do, and we need markets that allow those people to actually exist, thrive, hire lots of people, and create new jobs. A lot of people are like, “Oh, I work in tech, I don’t know how to do this.” But look, it’s actually abundance. We actually have to build again. We’ve become a litigious culture. I’m sure you’ve read this book Breakneck about China versus the US.
· Garry Tan, Jack Altman, Jared Friedman
[00:00:00] S3: That’s why we’ve been vocal about this idea of little tech. We have Luther Lowe, who used to work at Yelp, and he’s in DC full-time fighting for startups to be able to actually train AI models and enter markets. Frankly, I know we have lots of friends at Apple and Alphabet, and we have huge respect for those companies… Once in a while you’ll see in the press, “Oh yeah, we submitted an amicus about Apple and Alphabet”. It’s not because we hate those guys, but because we need tech to allow new startups and new entrants to come in. So to me it’s all very consistent. We need to be way more aggressive about what our products and services should be and can do, and we need markets that allow those people to actually exist, thrive, hire lots of people, and create new jobs. A lot of people are like, “Oh, I work in tech, I don’t know how to do this.” But look, it’s actually abundance. We actually have to build again. We’ve become a litigious culture. I’m sure you’ve read this book Breakneck about China versus the US. [00:00:00] S0: No but I want to. It’s Dan Wang’s book. It’s incredible. [00:00:00] S1: It’s really good. [00:00:00] S3: We built a lot in the forties and fifties, and then sometime around the sixties and seventies, they literally stopped building. We can’t build high-speed rail. It’s insane. Why? Because we’re a totally litigious culture that cannot get out of its own way.
· Garry Tan, Jack Altman, Harj Taggar, Jared Friedman
[00:00:00] S3: We built a lot in the forties and fifties, and then sometime around the sixties and seventies, they literally stopped building. We can’t build high-speed rail. It’s insane. Why? Because we’re a totally litigious culture that cannot get out of its own way. [00:00:00] S0: I saw some Peter Thiel talk about how we built all this stuff through the seventies and then for 50 years nothing happened except computers. Even right now most of the revolution is in computers, which is great. It’s better than nothing. Obviously other stuff is happening too. But you look at what China does, standing up a city in no time. They’re really good at robotics. What are we doing? On this societal topic, obviously you guys are very engaged with the city and state. [00:00:00] S2: Some more than others. [00:00:00] S0: Some more than others. What do you think is the posture that San Francisco and California need to take? What’s the most important thing posturally that we need to be taking? [00:00:00] S1: This is Garry’s area. How do we fix California politics? Garry has a plan. I’m kidding but actually he does have.
· Jared Friedman, Garry Tan, Jack Altman
[00:00:00] S1: This is Garry’s area. How do we fix California politics? Garry has a plan. I’m kidding but actually he does have. [00:00:00] S3: Matt Mahan just announced his race for governor. I think he is the perfect example of someone who is not virtue signaling. He built more than 1,400 homes in San Jose. The year before that, he hadn’t passed all the legislation he wanted, so zero market-rate housing was built in San Jose in 2024. When he came into office, he reduced homelessness by 20%. More than a thousand people came inside and got treatment and recovery because he actually supports treatment and recovery. I didn’t want to be involved in politics. But when I saw that my Asian American grandpas and grandmas couldn’t walk down the street without being assaulted and killed… When I saw people like me when I was 16 or 18… I knew I wanted to participate in tech. I knew I wanted to be an engineer. I didn’t know that I would get into Stanford. I wouldn’t have been able to do that if I didn’t have algebra in middle school, public middle school. My kids go to private school, but I went to public school. We should have a government that doesn’t require you to be rich to become a startup founder or be good at math. How did we get this bad? [00:00:00] S0: I’m glad you’re fighting for it. It’s very important and it’s not pleasant. I see you fighting on Twitter in a way I would not have the stomach for, and I’m glad you’re doing it.
· Jack Altman, Garry Tan
[00:00:00] S0: I’m glad you’re fighting for it. It’s very important and it’s not pleasant. I see you fighting on Twitter in a way I would not have the stomach for, and I’m glad you’re doing it. [00:00:00] S3: I appreciate it. For people watching, look I’m not going to get every take right. I want to hear when I don’t get it right. But on the flip side, let’s have the debate. Let’s actually talk about it. [00:00:00] S0: It takes a lot of courage to say stuff that you think and you might be wrong about, and you might get big blowback on. Even if you have it right, people are going to get mad. [00:00:00] S3: San Francisco and California got this bad because people who run businesses, who have jobs, who are trying to raise families, it was all so big and so scary that we stopped paying attention. San Francisco is on a better path because we started talking about it. At dinners, we started talking about it. “Hey, did you hear about so and so? They got assaulted? Did the police actually show up? What happened with the judge?” We’re going to try to unseat some judges in San Francisco. I was looking at the records. I’ve looked at a hundred cases for this judge, and in 90% of the cases this judge just dropped it on the floor, at an extreme rate. I think it was a three or four times higher rate of just dropping cases on the floor, purely for ideology. It’s unbelievable. How is this person serving the people? They’re not. The thing is, there’s a reason why we elect these people. There is an election coming, and we have to make sure we hold these leaders to account.
· Garry Tan, Jack Altman
[00:00:00] S3: San Francisco and California got this bad because people who run businesses, who have jobs, who are trying to raise families, it was all so big and so scary that we stopped paying attention. San Francisco is on a better path because we started talking about it. At dinners, we started talking about it. “Hey, did you hear about so and so? They got assaulted? Did the police actually show up? What happened with the judge?” We’re going to try to unseat some judges in San Francisco. I was looking at the records. I’ve looked at a hundred cases for this judge, and in 90% of the cases this judge just dropped it on the floor, at an extreme rate. I think it was a three or four times higher rate of just dropping cases on the floor, purely for ideology. It’s unbelievable. How is this person serving the people? They’re not. The thing is, there’s a reason why we elect these people. There is an election coming, and we have to make sure we hold these leaders to account. [00:00:00] S0: Totally. It’s great and it’s super important. It’s not easy work. Someone’s got to do it and I’m glad you’re doing it. Okay, politics tangent aside, although I could talk about that the whole day. [00:00:00] S3: I know, right? We’ll do the politics episode later. [00:00:00] S0: Going to get you and some politicians on here. One thing I’m curious about — which has been an obvious topic for me on other episodes — is the mega influx of capital into venture. Is that positive or negative for you? In what ways do you experience it as both?