This morning I read the news about OpenAI's latest round of financing of US$300 million with a valuation of US$27-29 billion. Investors this time include Tiger Global, Sequoia, a16z, Thrive, K2 Global and Founders Fund. Together with Microsoft's US$10 billion investment in January, OpenAI has received a total investment of US$10.3 billion in this round.
Among these VCs, the others are basically familiar, but K2 Global is a very interesting VC. It has only one partner, Ozi Amanat, who is a Solo VC. He just completed the fundraising of a new fund of 300 million US dollars last year. As a Solo VC, K2 Global, Thrive and Founders Fund should all participate in the investment in OpenAI for the first time.
I took a quick look at the introduction of K2 Global. As a Solo VC with only one partner, K2 Global's entire investment history is very interesting. The portfolios it invested in are all excellent companies that have changed human life over the years.
Its official website lists some of the companies it invested in from 2013 to 2021. In the years before 2019, there was only one company listed each year, for example:
Invested in Twitter in 2013
Invested in Alibaba in 2014
In 2015, Ozi Amanat officially founded K2 Global (Singapore and Silicon Valley, USA)
Invested in Twilio in 2016
Invested in SendGrid in 2017
Spotify in 2018
In 2019, it invested in two companies, Uber and Pinterest.
In 2020, there are 3 companies: Airbnb, Palantir and Casper
There were more investments in 2021, including Coinbase, Duolingo, and Paytm, totaling 8 companies
Although I don’t know whether the previous investment strategy was to invest in only one company a year, and I don’t know how much money was invested in these companies, but just to be able to invest in these companies, I think a lot of LPs are willing to give money. Moreover, the companies it invested in span different regions such as China, India and the United States. Therefore, it is reasonable for it to publicly invest in OpenAI this time.
Its official website shows that K2 Global’s LPs are from Singapore, the United States, India, Indonesia, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and Australia.
If we dig deeper, I believe Ozi Amanat should also have a very legendary investment story. This reminds me of an article written by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman 8 years ago. At that time, he had just celebrated his 30th birthday. A friend asked him what lessons he had learned in the past decade that were worth sharing with everyone, so he wrote this article "The days are long but the decades are short". At present, the number of readers of this article on his personal blog has reached nearly 730,000.
From this article, we can perhaps see some shadows of OpenAI, including the huge investments Sam Altman has made in life sciences and sustainable energy in recent years with his own money. In Sam Altman's own words, the companies he invested in are all hoping to solve the long-term or ultimate problems facing mankind, and he is willing to spend all his personal assets for this. Here is a share of his article from 8 years ago, and the translation capability is provided by OpenAI's GPT-4:
On my 30th birthday, a friend asked me if I had any life advice worth imparting over the past decade. I was a little hesitant to post this because I think these lists often seem pretty hollow, so here’s my condensed version:
Never put your family, friends or significant other low on your priority list. Prefer a handful of truly close friends to a hundred acquaintances. Don't lose touch with old friends, and occasionally stay up late chatting with people until sunrise. Throw a party.
Life is not a dress rehearsal - this may be true. Count it as an important experience, time is very limited and it flies. Do things that make you happy and satisfied - few people are remembered hundreds of years after they die. Don't do things that make you unhappy (this usually happens when someone else wants you to do something). Don't spend time maintaining relationships with people you don't like, cut off negative people. Negativity is really bad, don't make excuses for not doing the things you want to do.
What it takes to succeed: Choose the right thing to do (this is key and often overlooked), focus, believe in yourself (especially when others tell you it won't work), make personal connections with people who can help you, learn to recognize talented people, and work hard. It's hard to figure out what to do because original ideas are hard.
On work: It's hard to do well at a job you don't care about. It's also hard to be completely happy/fulfilled in life if you don't enjoy your job. Work hard - surprisingly, a lot of people are offended that you choose to work hard - but not so hard that you miss out on other aspects of your life. Strive to be the best in the world at your career. Even if you fail, you'll probably get into a pretty good position. Figure out your own productivity system - don't waste time on things that aren't scheduled, don't tackle work at suboptimal times, etc. Don't be afraid to take some risks in your career, especially early on. Most people choose their careers fairly haphazardly - think carefully about what you enjoy, what fields will lead to success, and try to network with people in those fields.
On money: Whether or not money can buy happiness, it can buy freedom, and that's a big deal. Lack of money is extremely stressful, and in almost every way, having enough money so that you don't stress about paying rent has more impact on your happiness than having enough money to buy your own private jet. Making money is usually more fun than spending it, although I personally have never regretted money I've spent on friends, new experiences, time saved, travel, and causes I believe in.
Communicate with more people. Read more quality content, watch less Weibo, watch less TV, and waste less time on the Internet.
Don't waste time. Most people waste most of their time, especially in business.
Don’t let others push you. As Paul Graham once said to me, “People can be powerful, but it’s hard to predict who.” (There’s a big difference between confidence and arrogance, and obviously go for the former.)
Set clear goals for yourself every day, every year, and every decade.
But while planning is important, if a good opportunity presents itself, you should take it. Don't be afraid to do something slightly risky. One of the benefits of working hard is that good opportunities will present themselves, but you still need to take them when they do.
Do your best to surround yourself with smart, interesting, ambitious people. Work for them and hire them (in fact, one of the most satisfying parts of the job is building deep relationships with truly amazing people). Try to surround yourself with people who are at the top of what they do or people who have great potential but are complete unknowns. Really, you become the average of the people you spend the most time with.
Try to reduce your cognitive load from distractions. I can't overstate how important this is, and most people are terrible at it. Get rid of distractions in your life. Especially in your work life, develop very strong methods to avoid letting the things you don't like to do pile up and take up your energy.
Keeping your personal consumption rate low will give you many opportunities in life.
Summer is the best.
Don't worry too much. Things in life are rarely as dangerous as they seem. Most people are overly cautious, so most advice tends to err on the conservative path.
Seek what you want.
If you think you will regret not doing something, then you should do it. Regret is the worst and most people regret the things they didn't do, not the things they did. When you are undecided, kiss the boy/girl.
Exercise. Eat healthy. Sleep. Get out in nature regularly.
Help others when you can, it's one of the few satisfying things in life. Be kind to strangers, even when it doesn't matter.
Youth is invaluable, don't waste it. In fact, in your twenties, I think it's OK to adopt the attitude of "give me financial discipline, but not now." All the money in the world can't bring back lost time.
Tell your parents you love them more often and go home to visit them as often as possible.
This too shall pass.
Learn voraciously.
Try new things often. This seems to be very important. Not only does trying new things seem to slow down the perception of time, increase happiness, and keep life interesting, but it also seems to prevent people from becoming rigid in their thinking. Try something bold, new, and adventurous every year in your personal and professional life.
Remember how much you loved your boyfriend/girlfriend when you were a teenager? Love him/her that way now. Remember how excited and happy you were about things when you were a kid? Be that excited and happy now.
Don't cheat others, don't burn bridges of friendship. Choose your battles carefully.
Forgive others.
Do not pursue status. Status without substance will not last long and is not fulfilling.
Most things are fine in moderation, and extremes are rarely beneficial.
Existential anxiety is a part of life. It’s especially pronounced after major life events or career milestones. It seems to particularly affect smart, ambitious people. I think one of the reasons some people work so hard is so they don’t have to spend too much time thinking about it. You’re not wrong to feel this way, and you’re not alone.
Be grateful and put things in perspective. Don’t complain too much. Don’t be jealous of other people’s success (but remember that some people will be jealous of your success, and you have to learn to ignore it).
Be a doer, not a lobbyist.
Given enough time, almost anything can be adapted, for better or worse. Humans are pretty amazing at this.
Think for a few seconds before you act. If you are angry, think for a few minutes.
Don't judge others too quickly. You never know their whole story and why they do or don't do something. Be empathetic.
The days are long, but the decades are short.
The translation of this article is basically all provided by GPT-4. If you feel that some of the translations are awkward, you are welcome to read the original English text, which is not difficult to read.
