Sam Altman says these 2 'legendary' execs were 'in the foxhole' with him during his brief ouster from OpenAI
Taylor Hill via Getty Images; Jemal Countess via Getty Images
- Sam Altman wrote a blog post about his experience running OpenAI on Sunday.
- Altman said OpenAI would have fallen apart in 2023 without Ron Conway's and Brian Chesky's help.
- That was the year Altman was briefly ousted and then reinstated as OpenAI's CEO.
OpenAI would have fallen apart back in 2023 without venture capitalist Ron Conway and Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, Sam Altman wrote in a blog post on Sunday.
Altman expressed his gratitude to Conway and Chesky in a blog post titled "Reflections," which detailed his brief ouster from OpenAI. Altman said the post was inspired by a recent interview he gave to Bloomberg, which was published on Sunday as well.
"Ron Conway and Brian Chesky went so far above and beyond the call of duty that I'm not even sure how to describe it," Altman wrote.
Altman was fired as OpenAI's CEO on November 17, 2023. The company's board said in a statement that it was removing Altman because he "was not consistently candid in his communications with the board" but did not elaborate further.
Altman returned as CEO on November 22, 2023, after nearly all of OpenAI's staff threatened to quit if he wasn't reinstated.
In his blog post, Altman said "there were a lot of people who did incredible and gigantic amounts of work" to help him and OpenAI when he was ousted, but Conway and Chesky "stood out from all others."
"I've of course heard stories about Ron's ability and tenaciousness for years and I've spent a lot of time with Brian over the past couple of years getting a huge amount of help and advice," Altman wrote.
"But there's nothing quite like being in the foxhole with people to see what they can really do," he continued. "I am reasonably confident OpenAI would have fallen apart without their help; they worked around the clock for days until things were done."
Conway and Chesky, Altman wrote, gave him "great advice" and "stopped me from making several mistakes." The pair also tapped on their vast networks to assist him, Altman added.
"I thought I knew what it looked like to support a founder and a company, and in some small sense I did," Altman wrote. "But I have never before seen, or even heard of, anything like what these guys did, and now I get more fully why they have the legendary status they do."
Representatives for Conway and Chesky did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
Conway and Chesky are longtime friends of Altman and were one of the first people he called after OpenAI fired him.
What happened at OpenAI today is a Board coup that we have not seen the likes of since 1985 when the then-Apple board pushed out Steve Jobs. It is shocking; it is irresponsible; and it does not do right by Sam & Greg or all the builders in OpenAI.
— Ron Conway (@RonConway) November 18, 2023
Conway was also one of Altman's guest speakers when the latter taught a class on startups at Stanford University in 2014.
Altman and Chesky's friendship, meanwhile, goes back more than a decade. Altman mentored Chesky when Airbnb was a part of Y Combinator, a startup accelerator.
When Altman was fired from OpenAI, he briefly considered launching another AI startup but was discouraged by Conway and Chesky, The New York Times reported in December 2023.
"You should be willing to fight back at least a little more," Chesky told Altman, per The Times.
OpenAI's board, Conway later told Time magazine, had fired Altman for "nitpicky, unfireable, not even close to fireable offenses."
The billionaire venture capitalist had spoken to the magazine as part of a profile on Altman that was published in December 2023.
"It is reckless and irresponsible for a board to fire a founder over emotional reasons," Conway told the outlet.