“No one cares about your idea:” Sam Altman’s brutal truth every founder needs to hear

Founders spend months — sometimes years — chasing that perfect idea. The one they believe will change everything. And once they think they’ve found it, they hold it close to the chest. Too close. They don’t want to tell anyone. Someone might steal it.

But according to Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI and former Y Combinator president, this mindset misses the point.

“No matter how great your idea is, no one cares.”

He wasn’t being harsh for the sake of it. He was making a bigger point about how founders waste time protecting something that’s not actually at risk.

“Everybody is so distracted that you could probably put that idea with exact instructions for how to implement it on Tim Cook’s desk and take no risk.”

Founders Are Worrying About the Wrong Thing

The concern is familiar: “If I talk about my startup idea, someone with more money and resources will just run with it.” But that’s rarely how things play out. Most people won’t bother, and most big companies move too slowly to care.

Altman says being overly secretive is a warning sign.

“Extreme secrecy among founders is a bad sign. You want to keep some things secret for sure, but you should be willing to talk about the broad sketches of what you’re doing because you need that to recruit people, to get investors, to get customers.”

Staying quiet might feel safer, but it isolates you. It keeps you from building momentum — and more importantly, from getting input that could save you months of wasted work.

Sam Altman: “No matter how great your idea is, no one cares.”

Sam is asked what a founder should do if they have an idea but don’t want to talk about it because a big company might steal it. He responds:

“Here is one of the things that takes founders a long time to learn: No… pic.twitter.com/4ub06DvCgj

— Startup Archive (@StartupArchive_) June 26, 2025

Feedback Is Fuel

Talking about your idea isn’t just about marketing. It’s how you learn what’s broken. It’s how you test the waters and spot weak points before launching something nobody wants.

Altman shared how Y Combinator embraces this. He’s gone so far as to publicly lay out the entire playbook for running a startup accelerator.

“We at YC talk about everything we do. We give our best possible advice. I have given talks before to rooms of people that want to start accelerators. And I say: ‘If you want to start an accelerator, here is exactly what to do step by step, and here are the mistakes to avoid step by step.’ And people always say, ‘Are you crazy? You’re giving away YC secrets.’ And we are, and yet no one ever listens…”

That last part is key: most people won’t take action, even if you hand them the blueprint. Which is why execution always wins.

The Real Threat Isn’t Theft — It’s Obscurity

If you’re worried about someone stealing your idea, ask yourself: Is it even in motion yet? Is there a product? Users? Momentum?

Because the bigger issue for most founders isn’t someone copying them — it’s that no one knows they exist.

Too many good ideas go nowhere because the people behind them are waiting for the “right time” to talk, launch, or share.

Watch the full interview with Sam Altman below.