Office Hours with Paul Graham and Sam Altman

The founders describe a multiplayer game where beginners write code to move characters and defeat opponents, learning harder concepts as they progress. Their launch drew enough traffic from Reddit to overwhelm their server, reaching a reported 15,000 people. Graham probes how the team will create more levels and validate its recruitment business model; the founders say they are still testing whether companies will pay for qualified developer leads.

The Give It 100 founders describe a site where people post short daily videos while learning a skill. Its private beta had 50 users and a waiting list of about 4,300; examples included dancing, beatboxing, coding, and learning to walk. Altman pushes the team to test whether people will share videos on YouTube, while the founders point to their creator’s video, which had reached 3 million views. Graham advises them to observe which uses take hold before optimizing for one category.

The Flexport founder explains that the company combines a licensed customs brokerage with a web app that organizes documents and helps staff file import paperwork electronically. He says the team has three customers, a waiting list of about 300, and expects to charge around $100 per clearance, with extra fees for some shipments. The first clearance was delayed by a government shutdown, and the founder sees brokerage as a way into broader logistics services.

The Flexport discussion turns to how the company could expand from customs clearance into freight, warehousing, inspection, and trucking. The founder estimates that capturing 1% of the customs clearance business could yield about $30 million in annual profit, while acknowledging uncertainty in the figures. Graham questions whether very large market claims are persuasive, and the founder considers sales teams as one way to reach importers.