Nat Friedman

I'm an investor, entrepreneur, developer.

Some things about me:

• Grew up in Charlottesville, VA


• On the Internet since 1991, which is my actual "home town"


• Went to MIT because I loved the Richard Feynman autobiographies


• Started two companies


• CEO of GitHub from 2018 through 2021


• Live in California

Some things I believe:

• As human beings it is our

... See more

There’s a lot to love about metrics driven systems: they’re fairly meritocratic, they reward intelligence and hard work, they align (at least in some way) the incentives of producers and consumers, and they accelerate really quickly once they start working.

But, using this framework to understand the systemic failure at the root of a lot of wide sca

... See more

Technology is changing one of the most powerful forces in shaping society: ambition. What the most ambitious people choose to do with their lives has a profound impact on society, the economy and culture. It’s changing, fast.First, that digital technology is the most recent in a series of ‘technologies of ambition’ that have enabled ambitious peopl... See more

Be bold

I believe that it’s easier to do a hard startup than an easy startup. People want to be part of something exciting and feel that their work matters.

If you are making progress on an important problem, you will have a constant tailwind of people wanting to help you. Let yourself grow more ambitious, and don’t be afraid to work on what you rea... See more

The average ambitious person spends too much time accumulating optionality and too little time taking actual risks with high upside potential for themselves or the world.