The Profile: OpenAI's billionaire & the tech investor who wants to save San Francisco

This edition of The Profile features Sam Altman, Garry Tan, the creator of "Bluey," and others.

Good morning, friends!

This week marks 24 years since my family and I moved to the U.S.

It’s an anniversary I like to reflect on because every passing year illuminates a different aspect of how it’s shaped me into who I am today.

Last year, I thought about just how unspeakably difficult the first few years in America were, but also how those days of uncertainty also brought about many moments of joy.

My best memories were formed during that time because of a well-timed joke, a language mix-up, or the first time I encountered a breaded, deep-fried, sausage on a stick you Americans call “a corn dog.”

This year, I thought about how much my life has changed since April 17, 2000, the day we got on an airplane and left for a country that would become our new home. I thought about just how much of an impact someone can have — even in a short period of time.

For me, that person was my first and second grade teacher.

Here’s a quick walk down memory lane:

This is me in first grade in Bulgaria with my teacher Evelina Androva. We still talk today, and I see her when I go back to visit. I’ve never had a teacher who cared like her.

(Front and center with a very bizarre haircut)

This was me in fourth grade in the U.S, where I was honored for being “Student of the Month.” I have a very vivid memory of being handed a piece of paper and told to hold it up while someone took my picture. I had absolutely no clue what was going on.

And this was me last week when I went on Bulgarian national TV to talk about my book, “HIDDEN GENIUS” — a book I wrote in English (the language I struggled to learn) that was then translated into Bulgarian (the language I now struggle to speak).

Today, I am in a position to pay it back. I surprised my teacher by thanking her in the foreword of the Bulgarian edition of the book. I wrote:

“My first (and favorite) teacher, Evelina Androva, recognized my passion for the written word and encouraged me to pursue it even as a 7-year-old. I wrote poems, letters, and short stories that she carefully read and edited. It was in her class that I realized my love for writing, and that love transcended borders and languages.”

She received my book last week.

It means the world to me that 24 years later, I can give her the proper credit she deserves.

— Polina

PROSFILES.

— OpenAI’s billionaire [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]
— The creator of a $2-billion cartoon
— The tech investor who wants to save San Francisco
— The vigilante hacker who took down North Korea’s internet
— The ‘Michael Jordan’ of hockey

PEOPLE TO KNOW.

OpenAI’s billionaire: Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, famously has no equity in the company, but startup bets like Reddit, Stripe, Helion, and Retro Biosciences that have made him a billionaire anyway. And it’s those investments, not $80-billion-plus valued OpenAI that land Altman on this year’s Forbes list of the world’s richest people for the first time. Here’s how he built such an impressive portfolio. (Forbes; if you can’t access the story, try this link.)

“Sam is rare in that he’s a capable investor, but he’s also making bold bets.”

The creator of a $2-billion cartoon: For this generation of kids, there’s Bluey, Joe Brumm’s hit TV show about a family of anthropomorphic Australian blue heeler dogs. It was a hit as soon as it debuted in its home country in 2018. It was picked up a year later by the Walt Disney Co. and it’s become an international phenomenon. In the U.S, Bluey wasn’t just the most watched kids’ show last year, it was the second most streamed show in 2023 after Suits. But now, the future of this kids’ entertainment behemoth isn’t certain, with many fans speculating that Bluey is coming to an end. (Bloomberg; if you can’t access this story, try this link.)

“It’s kind of the way The Office was 10 years ago. For parents, we’re all watching Bluey.”

The tech investor who wants to save San Francisco: Garry Tan’s day job is chief executive of Y Combinator, the accelerator for tech startups that has helped create household names including Airbnb, DoorDash, Dropbox, Instacart and Reddit. But his passion is now San Francisco politics. He is one of a cadre of love-them-or-hate-them tech executives and investors with lots of opinions about the city and endless piles of cash to make changes. And on the social media site X, where he has 425,000 followers, Tan doesn’t just rub some people the wrong way, he enrages them. Here’s how he inadvertently created enemies in the city he wants to save. (The New York Times; if you can’t access the story, try this link.)

“Welcome to the church of turning San Francisco around!”

The vigilante hacker who took down North Korea’s internet: As “P4x,” Alejandro Caceres single-handedly tore offline every publicly visible website in North Korea and would ultimately keep them down for more than a week. Caceres was surprised to find, in the wake of his North Korean cyberattacks, that the US government was interested in recruiting him. He would spend much of the next year on a strange journey trying to show the US military how it can—and should—adopt his methods. (WIRED)

“Most of them put their faces in their palms when they realized what he’d done and how he did it, and the only thing that stopped them from doing it was bureaucracy.”

The ‘Michael Jordan’ of hockey: Erin Matson graduated from North Carolina in 2022 as the starriest player in the history of collegiate field hockey. She led a Tar Heels dynasty to four NCAA championships, won player of the year honors three times and is widely considered to be among the greatest American talents ever. Her stellar résumé should make her a shoo-in for the U.S. roster in Paris. But the sport’s governing body won’t allow her to attend the Olympic trials. (WSJ; if you can’t access the article, try this link.)

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