'I'm Envious Of The Current Generation Of 20-Year-Old Dropouts,' Says Sam Altman, Admitting He Hasn't Had A 'Real Chunk Of Free Mental Space' In Years

Young innovators who are skipping college to build startups have more freedom and opportunity than ever before, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

"I'm envious of the current generation of 20-year-old dropouts," Altman said during an interview with The Rundown founder Rowan Cheung at the DevDay conference earlier this month. "Because the amount of stuff you can build, the opportunity in this space is so incredibly wide."

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Why Young Dropouts Are Winning

Altman, who dropped out of Stanford University in 2005 after two years of studying computer science, left at 19 to cofound the location-sharing startup Loopt, which was later acquired in 2012 by Green Dot Corporation (NYSE:GDOT), a U.S. financial technology firm that offers banking and payment services. He then became president of startup accelerator Y Combinator before helping launch OpenAI in 2015.

Altman said advances in artificial intelligence have lowered the barrier to innovation, making it possible to build sophisticated software in minutes using tools like visual builders and data connectors — allowing small, skilled teams to achieve what once required large groups and significant capital.

Reflecting on his own journey, Altman told Cheung he hasn't had "a real chunk of free mental space" in years — time to simply think about building something new. "The degree to which OpenAI is taking over all of my mental space … I don't get to go think about how to build a new startup, which is a little bit sad," he said.

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What He Learned From Building ChatGPT

"If you had asked me when we started ChatGPT what our enduring advantages were going to be, I would have said, ‘I have no idea,'" Altman said, adding that founders shouldn't expect to know their long-term advantage when they start.

He added that meaningful breakthroughs often come through experimentation. ChatGPT's memory feature, for instance, wasn't planned but evolved into one of its most notable features. "You start building features and then sometimes something emerges that's like, ‘Oh, this can be a really durable advantage for us,'" Altman said.

Progress in business, he said, often comes from taking action first and refining direction later. He cited a quote he likes — "let tactics become a strategy" — to show how consistent effort can evolve into a broader plan over time.

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Degrees Out, Startups In

Investor interest is increasingly shifting toward younger founders, according to TechCrunch, which said this month that venture capitalist Kevin Hartz had committed nearly 20% of his fund to teenage entrepreneurs, including one who launched a company before reaching driving age.

Data published by Kaplan Collection Group in September showed that 62% of entrepreneurs hold a bachelor's degree, while 38% have built businesses without one. 

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