I think you may be underestimating the value of someone brokering deals with mega-corps like Microsoft and managing to raise revenue and capital from various sources to finance the ongoing costs to stay at the top. Bear in mind that I'm not saying their decision was wrong. It's possible his forte is limited to building companies at early stages. Richard Branson was known for being better at building companies early on and indifferent to managing them as cash cows. It would also align with Altman's background with YCombinator.