Jack Altman
InvestorUnicorn founderFounder/CEO at Lattice · Partner, Alt Capital, Benchmark · Managing Partner at Alt Capital · General Partner at Benchmark
San Francisco, California
Writes $500K – $10M checks · typically $2.5M
FoundedLattice$3B · YCLattice
About
Jack Altman, former founder-CEO of multi‑billion-dollar HR software company Lattice, applies an operator-first, 10+ year durability test to investments and uses his Uncapped podcast as a deliberate research tool.
Contact· published on Jack's own website
Likely emails· guessed from name + firm domain, not firm-published
- j•••@lattice.comreveal90% confident
- j•••@lattice.comreveal80% confident
- j•••@lattice.comreveal75% confident
Invests in
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsEnergyEnterprise SoftwareFintechHealthtechSaaSSocial
Beyond investing
- Founded
- Altman and Eric Koslow became close colleagues at Teespring and saw the difficulty of keeping goals, management, and culture coherent as a startup grew. They left to build systems that could make those practices intentional rather than ad hoc.
- Awards
- Forbes selected Altman and Eric Koslow for its 2019 Enterprise Technology list for their work as Lattice cofounders.
- Family
- In first-person interviews Altman discusses meeting his wife Julia at Princeton, her support before he founded Lattice, and being a father of three. He has said parenthood sharpened his willingness to decline low-value meetings so he can be home for bedtime. No names or private details about the children are included.
- More
- Altman grew up in the St. Louis area and has described choosing Princeton, economics, and investment banking partly as high-optionality decisions before he had a defined vocation. Public sources do not establish a reliable exact birth date; Forbes' 2018 list gave his age as 29. Lattice's first goals product attracted interest but weak willingness to pay and weak repeat usage. After roughly nine months, customer conversations exposed a sharper pain around performance reviews; buyers then signed annual contracts from design mockups, an early signal of product-market pull. During Altman's CEO tenure, Lattice announced a $6.4 million Series A, $15 million Series B, $25 million Series C, $45 million Series D, $60 million Series E at a company-reported $1 billion valuation, and $175 million Series F at a company-reported $3 billion valuation. The last announcement put total funding above $330 million; these are company claims, not audited statements or evidence of personal liquidity. Lattice reported more than 5,000 global customers during 2023 and more than 6,000 companies and one million users in its year-end review. These company-reported scale figures anchor impact without assigning every company outcome to Altman alone. In January 2023 Altman published his memo announcing that Lattice would part with about 15% of the company after pandemic-era hiring and a demand slowdown. He accepted responsibility and detailed severance, extended option exercise, healthcare, mental-health, and career support. The decision remains a material difficult chapter, not a positive milestone. Altman announced Sarah Franklin as his successor effective January 2, 2024 and became executive chairman. He said the change followed careful planning; in a contemporaneous interview he explained that late-stage CEO work no longer matched the early company-building work he most enjoyed. Altman's first $150 million Alt Capital fund backed about 20 early-stage companies. He announced a $275 million second fund in September 2025, raised in about a week; after he joined Benchmark, reporting said most second-fund commitments would not be called and no new Alt Capital investments would be made. Altman hosts Uncapped, a continuing interview show with founders and investors. The official description frames it as conversations with people he admires about subjects that genuinely interest him.
Mentioned above: the Benchmark mafia →
From Jack's own website — common ground for a warm intro.
Founder/CEO at LatticeYC W16
Intro paths
Jack went through Y Combinator (Winter 2016) — any YC alum in your network can reach them through the YC community.
In turn, Jack can intro founders to Lattice's investors below.
Lattice's investors · 12
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Co-founders at Lattice
Co-founder at Lattice
Intro paths
In turn, Jack can intro founders to Lattice's investors below.
Lattice's investors · 1
Experience
- BenchmarkGeneral Partnercurrent2026 — presentSan Francisco Bay Area
- Alt CapitalManaging Partnercurrent2024 — presentSan Francisco Bay Area
- LatticeChairman and Co-foundercurrent2024 — presentSan Francisco Bay Area
- LatticeCEO and Co-founder at Lattice2015 — 2024San Francisco Bay Area
- TeespringVP of Business Development2013 — 2015San Francisco Bay Area
- Hydrazine CapitalInvestor2012 — 2014New York, NY
- Gleacher & CompanyAnalyst2011 — 2012New York
Skills & more
+12 more
Alternative InvestmentsInvestmentsFinanceGrowth StrategiesTable TennisBusiness StrategyEntrepreneurshipMergers & AcquisitionsFinancial AnalysisLBOTalent ManagementBusiness DevelopmentFrom Jack's professional profile.
Investments
Per curated public sources.
Founder fit — who Jack backs
Founder-led seed and Series A companies seeking a fast, direct, operator-informed partner. The verified portfolio is generalist but visibly concentrated in B2B software and AI, with selective hard-tech exposure.
['Fundraising optimized for headline valuation instead of success', 'Weak repeat usage or customer urgency', 'Fashionable category without founder insight', 'Teams seeking passive capital while resisting candid governance']
How to pitch
Lead with what the founders know that others do not, proof that customers pull the product, why the opportunity can become durable, and the hardest company-building decision where an operator-board member can help. No reliable first-party check-size range was found.
Stages: seed, early stage · Sectors: generalist technology, B2B and enterprise software, AI applications and data infrastructure, developer infrastructure, select hard tech
Editorial inference from Jack's portfolio, writing and public record — not a published mandate.
Investment themes
7 documented themes from Jack's essays, talks and portfolio, grouped by what they say about founders.
▶More themes6
Customer pull over stubborn attachment2016
Lattice's OKR-to-performance pivot underpins his view that founders need conviction but must read willingness to pay, repeat usage, and qualitative urgency honestly.
For founders: Show the contrast between polite interest and behavior proving customers urgently want the product.
People strategy is business strategy2021
His book and Lattice work argue that values, feedback, motivation, management, and employee data are operating systems for business performance rather than an administrative HR layer.
For founders: Explain how hiring, context, feedback, and culture become deliberate systems as headcount grows.
Context enables decentralized decisions2023
Altman describes context-setting as a primary CEO job: leaders repeat strategy and constraints so decisions can happen throughout a scaled organization.
For founders: Explain how the company will preserve decision quality without making the founder a bottleneck.
Optimize for success, not maximum valuation2025
He argues that premature headline valuations can make later rounds harder, weaken investor alignment, and distract CEOs from building.
For founders: Frame financing as fuel for milestones and partner quality, not a competition for the highest paper price.
Power-law attention and conviction2025
His writing emphasizes that a small number of investments and decisions create disproportionate outcomes, so attention should move toward activities with plausible outlier returns.
For founders: Demonstrate why this company could become an outlier and why the evidence deserves concentrated attention.
Operator-informed but founder-led support2026
On joining Benchmark, he described investing as a way to work with mission-driven teams and be the partner he would have wanted while building.
For founders: Be specific about where his experience with pivots, executives, fundraising, culture, and boards could improve a founder-owned decision.
▶Governance & network states1
Boards are long-duration, high-stakes relationships2025
Altman says founders should choose directors for years of consequential decisions, not merely optimize for a pleasant fundraising interaction.
For founders: Discuss expectations for disagreement, decision rights, information flow, and support before accepting a board investor.
Podcasts & interviews
featuring Jack AltmanJack Altman Talks About His First Benchmark Deal
Business Insider · businessinsider.com
Jack Altman joins Benchmark as GP
TechCrunch · techcrunch.com
Jack Altman — The Early Stories Behind Billions
ORIGINS · yesterdayy.substack.com
Jack Altman on Product-Market Fit
Andreessen Horowitz · a16z.com
From Building a Unicorn to Starting a Venture Firm
Venture Unlocked · podscan.fm
From VC-backed Founder to Angel to Institutional Investor
Origins — Inside Venture Capital · podcasts.apple.com
5 more appearances
Writing
Founder advice on how excessive early valuations can damage later financing, alignment, and focus.
Ongoing hosted interview archive on founders, venture, AI, markets, and company-building.
Essay applying power-law thinking to time, money, and attention.
Company note announcing Sarah Franklin as CEO and Altman's executive-chair transition.
Public restructuring memo accepting responsibility, explaining a roughly 15% reduction, and itemizing transition support.
Wall Street Journal bestselling framework for values, culture, feedback, motivation, employee data, and high-performing teams.
4 more posts
- Lattice Series E2021-03-23
- Lattice Raises $15 Million Series B2019-04-26
- Raising Our Series A2017-07-31
- Jack Altman Essay Archive
Network28
▶16 more connections
Bill Clerico · scoutBlake Bartlett · scoutBob Kagle · scoutBrandon Leonardo · scoutBrian Halligan · scoutBruce Dunlevie · scoutBryan Offutt · scoutCharley Ma · scoutChetan Puttagunta · scoutCollin · scoutDave Balter · scoutDennis Crowley · scoutEliot Durbin · scoutEric Vishria · scoutEverett Randle · scoutGeorge Hu · scout
Investors connected to Jack in public investor directories — a warm-intro map.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Jack Altman still at Lattice?
- Yes. Lattice lists him as cofounder and executive chairman. Sarah Franklin has been CEO since January 2, 2024, while Altman's primary current investing role is general partner at Benchmark.
- What did Jack Altman do before Lattice?
- He graduated from Princeton in 2011 with an AB in economics, spent about eleven months at Gleacher, invested through Hydrazine Capital, and joined Teespring as vice president of business development to gain operating experience.
- How did Lattice find product-market fit?
- Its initial goals/OKR product generated interest but poor payment and retention behavior. Customer interviews surfaced a more urgent performance-review problem; buyers then bought annual contracts from mockups, prompting the pivot.
- What scale did Lattice reach under Jack Altman?
- The company announced more than $330 million in cumulative funding and a $3 billion valuation in January 2022, then reported more than 6,000 customers and one million users for 2023. Those are company-reported figures, not audited results or evidence of personal wealth.
- What happened to Alt Capital when he joined Benchmark?
- Alt Capital stopped new investments, most commitments to its second fund reportedly would not be called, and its team followed Altman. He retained board seats. Public sources do not show that Benchmark acquired the portfolio.
- Which investments are personal and which belong to firms?
- Interviews describe Opendoor, Instacart, and Gusto as part of his angel record, but some early checks overlap the Hydrazine period and sources omit the vehicle. David AI, Owner.com, Antares, and other Alt Capital positions are fund investments; Monaco is a Benchmark investment.
- What investment exits are documented?
- PlanGrid was acquired by Autodesk in 2018 and Opendoor became public in 2020. Reviewed sources do not establish Altman's vehicle, ownership at transaction, sales, or realized proceeds, so neither is presented as a verified personal cash return.
- How is Jack Altman professionally connected to Sam Altman?
- They are brothers and publicly overlapped at Hydrazine Capital; Jack interviewed Sam on Uncapped in 2025. TechCrunch reported Sam was not an LP in Alt Capital II. Sam's companies and investments are not transferred to Jack.
- What has Jack Altman published or hosted?
- He wrote the 2021 Wall Street Journal bestseller People Strategy, maintains an essay archive, authored consequential Lattice communications, and hosts the ongoing Uncapped interview show.
- Who is Jack Altman?
- Jack Altman, former founder-CEO of multi‑billion-dollar HR software company Lattice, applies an operator-first, 10+ year durability test to investments and uses his Uncapped podcast as a deliberate research tool.
- Where does Jack Altman work?
- Jack Altman is Founder/CEO of Lattice and Partner, Alt Capital, Benchmark at Jack Altman.
- What does Jack Altman invest in?
- Jack Altman invests in AI & Machine Learning, Data & Infrastructure, Developer Tools, Energy, Enterprise Software, Fintech, Healthtech, SaaS, Social.
- What check size does Jack Altman write?
- Jack Altman typically writes checks of $500K – $10M.
- What companies did Jack Altman found?
- Jack Altman founded Lattice, Lattice.
Founder mafias
Y Combinator mafia8,773
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
+ 8,766 more
Princeton University mafia160
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
+ 153 more
Benchmark mafia11
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
+ 4 more
Gleacher & Company mafia2
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
Same school
Also attended Princeton University579
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+ 573 more
Shared employers
Also worked at Lattice15
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+ 9 more
Also worked at Teespring12
+ 6 more