Fairchild Eight Parallels OpenAI
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Sam Parr shares a historical parallel between the OpenAI situation and the founding of Silicon Valley through Fairchild Semiconductor.
"There was a big company called Shockley Conductors that made computer chips in the sixties in Silicon Valley. People were pissed off at the owner, William Shockley. He was brilliant but just a pain in the ass. These 8 guys said 'hey you gotta bail or we're bailing' and the CEO goes 'see you.'
These 8 people went and started Fairchild, which was basically the equivalent of NVIDIA but back then. Their culture was famous because they were casual - where nerds could come and be casual and where the best ideas actually won. That was where the whole culture of Silicon Valley arguably started.
The offshoots of Fairchild Conductors included IBM, the founders of Sequoia Capital, Kleiner and Perkins. The story of the 'Treacherous 8' is very similar to this OpenAI story. It ended really well for the Treacherous 8, which suggests it might end well for Sam and Greg too."
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.