Rory O'Driscoll(@rodriscoll):I don’t completely agree with Harry’s take around A-tier talent because it's all about what kind of A-tier talent you want. Nobody building application software companies in the PC era had A-tier chip talent, because they weren’t building chips. They were taking advantage of all those smart Intel engineers and Microsoft operating system engineers and building on top. The same logic applies today. If you’re actually building a frontier model and you don’t have A-tier model talent, then yes, you’re toast. But if you’re not, you don’t need A-tier model building talent. You need A-tier talent in USING frontier models to build great apps.

2026.08.14 15:49

I don’t completely agree with Harry’s take around A-tier talent because it's all about what kind of A-tier talent you want. Nobody building application software companies in the PC era had A-tier chip talent, because they weren’t building chips. They were taking advantage of all those smart Intel engineers and Microsoft operating system engineers and building on top. The same logic applies today. If you’re actually building a frontier model and you don’t have A-tier model talent, then yes, you’re toast. But if you’re not, you don’t need A-tier model building talent. You need A-tier talent in USING frontier models to build great apps.

Harry Stebbings@HarryStebbings

2026.08.13 11:47

There is a very ugly truth that I think we are lying to ourselves about. 99% of startups today cannot even hire B-tier talent. The might of Anthropic, OpenAI, and the hottest of hot companies are sucking up all the A*, A, and B talent. Single greatest problem for every founder today is acquiring and retaining talent, without a doubt.