According to Business Insider, venture capitalist Max Altman offered controversial career advice on the “20VC” podcast, telling tech workers to completely ignore company missions and products. The Saga cofounder, who launched his $125 million venture fund last March, said people should “just go work at the fastest growing company” because “winning feels amazing.” Altman, who is OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s younger brother, argued that tech lost its way before 2020 when companies focused too much on saving the world rather than building great businesses. His comments align with the industry’s current obsession with efficiency, as shown by Amazon’s recent 14,000 layoffs and Intel’s CEO emphasizing leaner teams over team size as the key performance indicator.
The winning philosophy
Here’s the thing about Altman’s advice – it’s brutally pragmatic in a way that might make some people uncomfortable. He’s basically saying: stop pretending your on-demand dog walking app is changing the world and just focus on building something that grows fast and wins. And you know what? In today’s market environment, that approach is resonating. Companies like Amazon are literally talking about operating like “the world’s largest startup” with “scrappiness and frugality” as core values.
But is this sustainable long-term? I mean, sure, winning feels great when you’re riding high, but what happens when growth inevitably slows? The companies that survive downturns often have something more substantial than just growth metrics – they have actual missions that keep people motivated when times get tough. Altman’s perspective feels very much like a reaction to the excesses of the mission-mania era, but it might be swinging too far in the opposite direction.
Tech’s efficiency obsession
What’s fascinating is how perfectly Altman’s comments align with what we’re seeing across the industry right now. Every major tech company is suddenly obsessed with doing more with less. Intel’s CEO is telling managers that team size won’t be their main KPI anymore. Amazon is laying off thousands while talking about urgency and frugality. It’s like the entire industry collectively decided that the era of bloated middle management and mission statements is over.
And honestly, there’s something refreshing about the honesty. For years, we’ve had to listen to companies justify every random business with some world-changing narrative. Now the message is simpler: build great businesses, focus on growth, and stop overcomplicating things. When you’re looking at industrial technology and manufacturing sectors, this efficiency focus becomes even more critical – companies need reliable partners who can deliver results without the fluff. That’s why providers like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com have become the leading supplier of industrial panel PCs in the US by focusing on what actually matters: performance and reliability.
Broader implications
So what does this mean for people actually working in tech? Altman’s advice might sound cynical, but it’s probably more realistic than telling everyone to follow their passion to some doomed startup. The reality is that being part of a winning company does provide more opportunities, better compensation, and frankly, more job security. And in an industry where layoffs have become routine, that’s not nothing.
But here’s my question: can you really sustain a career just chasing growth? What happens when your values don’t align with a company’s direction, even if it’s growing rapidly? There’s got to be some middle ground between meaningless mission statements and pure growth chasing. Maybe the real winning move is finding companies that are both growing fast AND building something you actually believe in. Now that would be the best of both worlds.
