{"id":665597,"date":"2025-04-26T17:33:51","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T14:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/the-openai-mafia-15-of-the-most-notable-startups-founded-by-alumni\/"},"modified":"2025-04-26T17:33:51","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T14:33:51","slug":"the-openai-mafia-15-of-the-most-notable-startups-founded-by-alumni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-openai-mafia-15-of-the-most-notable-startups-founded-by-alumni\/","title":{"rendered":"The OpenAI mafia: 15 of the most notable startups founded by alumni"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a24685c4bc57\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a24685c4bc57\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-openai-mafia-15-of-the-most-notable-startups-founded-by-alumni\/#Dario_Amodei_Daniela_Amodei_and_John_Schulman_%E2%80%94_Anthropic\" >Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, and John Schulman \u2014 Anthropic<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-openai-mafia-15-of-the-most-notable-startups-founded-by-alumni\/#Ilya_Sutskever_%E2%80%94_Safe_Superintelligence\" >Ilya Sutskever \u2014 Safe Superintelligence\u00a0<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-openai-mafia-15-of-the-most-notable-startups-founded-by-alumni\/#Mira_Murati_%E2%80%94_Thinking_Machines_Lab\" >Mira Murati \u2014 Thinking Machines Lab\u00a0<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-openai-mafia-15-of-the-most-notable-startups-founded-by-alumni\/#Aravind_Srinivas_%E2%80%94_Perplexity\" >Aravind Srinivas \u2014 Perplexity<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-openai-mafia-15-of-the-most-notable-startups-founded-by-alumni\/#Kyle_Kosic_%E2%80%94_xAI\" >Kyle Kosic \u2014 xAI<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-openai-mafia-15-of-the-most-notable-startups-founded-by-alumni\/#Emmett_Shear_%E2%80%94_Stem_AI\" >Emmett Shear \u2014 Stem AI<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-openai-mafia-15-of-the-most-notable-startups-founded-by-alumni\/#Andrej_Karpathy_%E2%80%94_Eureka_Labs\" >Andrej Karpathy \u2014 Eureka Labs<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-openai-mafia-15-of-the-most-notable-startups-founded-by-alumni\/#Jeff_Arnold_%E2%80%94_Pilot\" >Jeff Arnold \u2014 Pilot<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-openai-mafia-15-of-the-most-notable-startups-founded-by-alumni\/#David_Luan_%E2%80%94_Adept_AI_Labs\" >David Luan \u2014 Adept AI Labs\u00a0<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-openai-mafia-15-of-the-most-notable-startups-founded-by-alumni\/#Tim_Shi_%E2%80%94_Cresta\" >Tim Shi \u2014 Cresta\u00a0<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-11\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-openai-mafia-15-of-the-most-notable-startups-founded-by-alumni\/#Pieter_Abbeel_Peter_Chen_and_Rocky_Duan_%E2%80%94_Covariant\" >Pieter Abbeel, Peter Chen, and Rocky Duan \u2014 Covariant<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-12\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-openai-mafia-15-of-the-most-notable-startups-founded-by-alumni\/#Maddie_Hall_%E2%80%94_Living_Carbon\" >Maddie Hall \u2014 Living Carbon<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-13\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-openai-mafia-15-of-the-most-notable-startups-founded-by-alumni\/#Shariq_Hashme_%E2%80%94_Prosper_Robotics\" >Shariq Hashme \u2014 Prosper Robotics<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-14\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-openai-mafia-15-of-the-most-notable-startups-founded-by-alumni\/#Jonas_Schneider_%E2%80%94_Daedalus\" >Jonas Schneider \u2014 Daedalus<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-15\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-openai-mafia-15-of-the-most-notable-startups-founded-by-alumni\/#Margaret_Jennings_%E2%80%94_Kindo\" >Margaret Jennings \u2014 Kindo<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Move over, PayPal mafia: There\u2019s a new tech mafia in Silicon Valley. As the startup behind ChatGPT, OpenAI is arguably the biggest AI player in town. Its meteoric rise to a $300 billion valuation has spurred many employees to leave the AI giant to create startups of their own.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The hype around OpenAI is so high that some of these startups, like Ilya Sutskever\u2019s Safe Superintelligence and Mira Murati\u2019s Thinking Machines Lab, have been able to raise billions of dollars without even launching a product.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But there are lots of other startups in the OpenAI mafia ecosystem. These range from AI search giant Perplexity to xAI, the new owner of X (formerly <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>.) There\u2019s also smaller outfits with some futuristic plans, like Living Carbon, which is creating plants that suck more carbon out of the atmosphere, or Prosper Robotics, which is building a robot butler.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Below is a roundup of the most notable startups founded by OpenAI alumni.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-dario-amodei-daniela-amodei-and-john-schulman-anthropic\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Dario_Amodei_Daniela_Amodei_and_John_Schulman_%E2%80%94_Anthropic\"><\/span>Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, and John Schulman \u2014 Anthropic<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei left OpenAI in 2021 to form their own startup, San Francisco-based Anthropic, that has long <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.anthropic.com\/news\/core-views-on-ai-safety\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">touted<\/a> a focus on AI safety.\u00a0 Later, OpenAI co-founder John Schulman joined Anthropic in 2024, pledging to build a \u201csafe AGI.\u201d OpenAI reportedly remains multiple times larger than Anthropic by revenue (<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theinformation.com\/articles\/openai-forecasts-revenue-topping-125-billion-2029-agents-new-products-gain\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">$3.7 billion<\/a> compared to <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theinformation.com\/briefings\/anthropic-reaches-1-4-billion-in-annualized-revenue\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">$1 billion<\/a> for 2024, The Information reported). But Anthropic has quickly grown to become OpenAI\u2019s biggest rival and was valued at $61.5 billion in March 2025.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-ilya-sutskever-safe-superintelligence\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Ilya_Sutskever_%E2%80%94_Safe_Superintelligence\"><\/span>Ilya Sutskever \u2014 Safe Superintelligence\u00a0<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever left OpenAI in May 2024 after he was reportedly part of a failed effort to replace CEO Sam Altman. Shortly afterward, he co-founded Safe Superintelligence, or SSI, with \u201cone goal and one product: a safe superintelligence,\u201d he says. Details about what exactly the startup is up to are scant: It has no product and no revenue yet. But investors are clamoring for a piece anyway, and it\u2019s been able to raise $2 billion, with its latest valuation reportedly rising to $32 billion this month. SSI is based in Palo Alto, California, and Tel Aviv, Israel.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-mira-murati-thinking-machines-lab\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Mira_Murati_%E2%80%94_Thinking_Machines_Lab\"><\/span>Mira Murati \u2014 Thinking Machines Lab\u00a0<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mira Murati, OpenAI\u2019s CTO, left OpenAI last year to found her own company, Thinking Machines Lab, which emerged from stealth in February 2025, announcing (rather vaguely) that it will build AI that\u2019s more \u201ccustomizable\u201d and \u201ccapable.\u201d The San Francisco AI startup has no product or revenue but plenty of former top OpenAI researchers and is reportedly in the process of raising a massive $2 billion seed round valuing it at $10 billion, minimum.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-aravind-srinivas-perplexity\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Aravind_Srinivas_%E2%80%94_Perplexity\"><\/span>Aravind Srinivas \u2014 Perplexity<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Aravind Srinivas worked as a research scientist at OpenAI for a year until 2022, when he left the company to co-found AI search engine Perplexity. His startup has attracted a string of high-profile investors like Jeff Bezos and Nvidia, although it\u2019s also caused controversy over alleged unethical web scraping. Perplexity, which is based in San Francisco, is currently raising about $1 billion at an $18 billion valuation as of March 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-kyle-kosic-xai\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Kyle_Kosic_%E2%80%94_xAI\"><\/span>Kyle Kosic \u2014 xAI<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kyle Kosic left OpenAI in 2023 to become a co-founder and infrastructure lead of xAI, Elon Musk\u2019s AI startup that offers a rival chatbot, Grok. In 2024, however, he <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2024\/06\/28\/xai-original-employee-departure-kyle-kosic-engineer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">hopped back<\/a> to OpenAI. Palo Alto-based xAI recently acquired X, formerly Twitter, and gave the combined entity a valuation of $113 billion. The all-stock transaction raised some eyebrows but is a good deal if you\u2019re betting on Musk\u2019s empire.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-emmett-shear-stem-ai\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Emmett_Shear_%E2%80%94_Stem_AI\"><\/span>Emmett Shear \u2014 Stem AI<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Emmett Shear is the former CEO of Twitch who was OpenAI\u2019s interim CEO in November 2023 for a few days before Sam Altman rejoined the company. Shear is working on his own stealth startup, called Stem AI, TechCrunch revealed in 2024. Although there are few details about its activity and fundraising so far, it has already attracted funding from Andreessen Horowitz.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-andrej-karpathy-eureka-labs\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Andrej_Karpathy_%E2%80%94_Eureka_Labs\"><\/span>Andrej Karpathy \u2014 Eureka Labs<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Computer vision expert Andrej Karpathy was a founding member and research scientist at OpenAI, leaving the startup to join Tesla in 2017 to lead its autopilot program. Karpathy is also well-known for his YouTube <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/andrejkarpathy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">videos<\/a> explaining core AI concepts. He left Tesla in 2024 to found his own education <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a> startup, Eureka Labs, a San Francisco-based startup that is building AI teaching assistants.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-jeff-arnold-pilot\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Jeff_Arnold_%E2%80%94_Pilot\"><\/span>Jeff Arnold \u2014 Pilot<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jeff Arnold worked as OpenAI\u2019s head of operations for five months in 2016 before co-founding San Francisco-based accounting startup Pilot in 2017. Pilot, which focused initially on doing accounting for startups, last raised a $100 million <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Series<\/a> C in 2021 at a $1.2 billion valuation and has attracted investors like Jeff Bezos. Arnold worked as Pilot\u2019s COO until <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theinformation.com\/articles\/why-ai-founders-are-starting-their-own-venture-funds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">leaving<\/a> in 2024 to launch a VC fund.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-david-luan-adept-ai-labs\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"David_Luan_%E2%80%94_Adept_AI_Labs\"><\/span>David Luan \u2014 Adept AI Labs\u00a0<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">David Luan was OpenAI\u2019s engineering VP until he left in 2020. After a stint at Google, in 2021 he co-founded Adept AI Labs, a startup that builds AI tools for employees. The startup last raised $350 million at a valuation north of $1 billion in 2023, but Luan left in late 2024 to oversee Amazon\u2019s AI agents lab after Amazon hired Adept\u2019s founders.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-tim-shi-cresta\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Tim_Shi_%E2%80%94_Cresta\"><\/span>Tim Shi \u2014 Cresta\u00a0<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tim Shi was an early member of OpenAI\u2019s team, where he focused on building safe artificial <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a> intelligence (AGI), according to his LinkedIn profile. He worked at OpenAI for a year in 2017 but left to found Cresta, a San Francisco-based AI contact center startup that has raised over $270 million from VCs like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and others, according to a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/cresta-closes-125m-series-d-to-accelerate-adoption-of-human-centric-ai-in-the-contact-center-302309858.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-pieter-abbeel-peter-chen-and-rocky-duan-covariant\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Pieter_Abbeel_Peter_Chen_and_Rocky_Duan_%E2%80%94_Covariant\"><\/span>Pieter Abbeel, Peter Chen, and Rocky Duan \u2014 Covariant<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The trio all worked at OpenAI in 2016 and 2017 as research scientists before founding Covariant, a Berkeley, California-based startup that builds foundation AI models for robots. In 2024, Amazon hired all three of the Covariant founders and about a quarter of its staff. The quasi acquisition was <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2025\/01\/18\/amazon-antitrust-ai-whistleblower\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">viewed by some<\/a> as part of a broader trend of Big Tech attempting to avoid antitrust scrutiny.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-maddie-hall-living-carbon\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Maddie_Hall_%E2%80%94_Living_Carbon\"><\/span>Maddie Hall \u2014 Living Carbon<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maddie Hall worked on \u201cspecial projects\u201d at OpenAI but left in 2019 to co-found Living Carbon, a San Francisco-based startup that aims to create engineered plants that can suck more carbon out of the sky to fight climate change. Living Carbon raised a $21 million Series A round in 2023, bringing its total funding until then to $36 million, according to a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.globenewswire.com\/news-release\/2023\/01\/17\/2590194\/0\/en\/Living-Carbon-raises-new-funding-to-plant-4M-fast-growing-carbon-guzzling-supertrees-in-US.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-shariq-hashme-prosper-robotics\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Shariq_Hashme_%E2%80%94_Prosper_Robotics\"><\/span>Shariq Hashme \u2014 Prosper Robotics<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shariq Hashme worked for OpenAI for 9 months in 2017 on a bot that could play the popular video <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">game<\/a> Dota, per his LinkedIn profile. After a few years at data-labeling startup Scale AI, he co-founded London-based Prosper Robotics in 2021. The startup says it\u2019s working on a robot butler for people\u2019s homes, a hot trend in robotics that other players like Norway\u2019s 1X and Texas-based <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">App<\/a>tronik are also working on.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-jonas-schneider-daedalus\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Jonas_Schneider_%E2%80%94_Daedalus\"><\/span>Jonas Schneider \u2014 Daedalus<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jonas Schneider led OpenAI\u2019s software engineering for robotics team but left in 2019 to co-found Daedalus, which builds advanced factories for precision components. The San Francisco-based startup raised a $21 million Series A last year with backing from Khosla Ventures, among others.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-margaret-jennings-kindo\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Margaret_Jennings_%E2%80%94_Kindo\"><\/span>Margaret Jennings \u2014 Kindo<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Margaret Jennings worked at OpenAI in 2022 and 2023 until she left to co-found Kindo, which markets itself as an AI chatbot for enterprises. Kindo has raised over $27 million in funding, last <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/venturebeat.com\/ai\/kindo-raises-20-6m-to-bring-security-to-enterprise-ai\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">raising<\/a> a $20.6 million Series A in 2024. Jennings left Kindo in 2024 to head product and research at French AI startup Mistral, according to her LinkedIn profile.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/category\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Technology<\/a><\/span> category.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/04\/26\/the-openai-mafia-15-of-the-most-notable-startups-founded-by-alumni\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Move over, PayPal mafia: There\u2019s a new tech mafia in Silicon Valley. As the startup behind ChatGPT, OpenAI is arguably the biggest AI player in town. Its meteoric rise to a $300 billion valuation has spurred many employees to leave the AI giant to create startups of their own. The hype around OpenAI is so&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":665598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/GettyImages-2197181602.jpg?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[152300,138467,151410,141199,152732,70917,151707],"class_list":["post-665597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-anthropic","tag-chatgpt","tag-evergreens","tag-openai","tag-perplexity","tag-startups","tag-xai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}