Sam Altman has observed thousands of founders and thought a lot about what it takes to make a huge amount of money or create something important.

Judged as of 2019-01-24. The key fact to check is that Altman had observed thousands of founders. True if records show that by January 2019 Altman's roles (YC partner from 2011, YC president 2014-2019, investor) put him in contact with or overseeing thousands of founders, e.g. YC had funded enough companies (roughly 1,000+ companies, giving thousands of founders) during his time there. Mostly true if he had worked with somewhat fewer, but still on the order of a thousand or more, founders. Mostly false if he had directly observed only hundreds. False if records show his exposure was far below a thousand founders. The 'thought a lot' part is subjective and does not affect the verdict.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Did Sam Altman make YC better or worse? | TechCrunch TechCrunch · 9 March 2019

   “Even with a network that has 4,000 alumni and 1,900 companies, Altman has long said that he thinks YC can do even more.”

2. E2 Did Sam Altman make YC better or worse? | TechCrunch TechCrunch · 9 March 2019

   “who was part of the first YC startup class in 2005, began working part-time as a YC partner in 2011, and was made the head of the organization five years ago”

3. E3 Running The Numbers on Y Combinator's Best Year Yet Crunchbase News · 14 December 2020

   “Y Combinator has invested in more than 2,500 companies since 2005 when the program launched with the initial eight companies each raising $11,000 with an added $3,000 per founder.”

E2 says Altman worked part-time as a YC partner from 2011 and became head of YC about five years before March 2019. E1, published in March 2019, describes YC's network as having 4,000 alumni and 1,900 companies. E3 shows YC grew from 8 companies in its first batch in 2005 to more than 2,500 by December 2020, though it does not show how many of these were funded before Altman joined as a partner in 2011. That puts his roles in contact with thousands of founders by January 2019, which meets the criteria for true.