OpenAI Hires Co-Founders of AI-Powered Tool Convogo

OpenAI has hired the three co-founders of Convogo, an artificial intelligence-powered tool for executive coaches, consultants, talent leaders and human resources teams.

While OpenAI hired Convogo co-founders Matt Cooper, Evan Cater and Mike Gillett, it did not acquire the company’s intellectual property or technology, TechCrunch reported Thursday (Jan. 8), citing an OpenAI spokesperson.

The three new hires will work on OpenAI’s “AI cloud efforts,” while Convogo’s product will be wound down, according to the report.

Neither Convogo nor OpenAI immediately replied to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

Cooper announced in a Thursday post on LinkedIn, which was reposted by Cater and Gillett, that “the Convogo team is joining OpenAI.”

According to the post, Convogo has helped thousands of executive coaches over the past two years by automating report writing. At the same time, the co-founders saw that while AI is continually getting more intelligent, it needs the right tooling to translate that into real outcomes.

“We’re convinced now more than ever that the key to bridging that gap lies in thoughtful, purpose-built experiences, like what we’ve built for coaches at Convogo,” Cooper wrote in the post. “That’s why we’re thrilled to join OpenAI to continue our work of making AI accessible and useful to professionals in every industry.”

According to the TechCrunch report, OpenAI has made nine acquisitions over the past year. They include Sky and Statsig, whose products were folded into OpenAI’s ecosystem; Roi, Context.ai and Crossing Minds, whose products were shut down when the teams joined the AI startup; and Jony Ive’s iO Products, which is working with OpenAI to develop AI hardware.

It was reported in May that OpenAI acquired iO Products for just under $6.5 billion and that the firm would become the devices division of OpenAI.

When OpenAI bought Roi in October, Roi’s co-founder/CEO said: “This acquisition marks an incredible milestone for Roi, and we’re thrilled to continue building out our vision at OpenAI.”

It was reported in October that OpenAI acquired Software Applications, an AI startup founded by former Apple engineers who helped build the iPhone’s Shortcuts app, and that this deal would strengthen OpenAI’s effort to make ChatGPT more interactive by integrating it directly with users’ computers.