Sam Altman was fired as president of Y Combinator after a sexual harassment investigation.
Sam Altman, the president of Silicon Valley startup incubator Y Combinator, was fired in early 2021 after an internal investigation found that he had sexually harassed multiple female employees at the company. The investigation found that Altman had made inappropriate comments to multiple women at the company and touched one woman inappropriately. Y Combinator’s CEO, Michael Seibel, announced Altman’s firing on Twitter on February 1st. He also stated that the incubator would be implementing “a new HR system and process” as well as taking “other steps to make sure nothing like this happens again.”
Altman is a well-known figure in Silicon Valley, thanks to his involvement with Y Combinator. The incubator has helped launch many successful companies over the years including Airbnb, Dropbox and Reddit. It has also been criticized for its role in funding startups with male-dominated boards and its practice of accepting more than 50% of its companies without an interview process.
