- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman credited Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky and venture capitalist Ron Conway for helping him navigate his brief ousting from his own tech company in November 2023. “They stopped me from making several mistakes and made none themselves,” Altman wrote in a Sunday blog post.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admitted his tech behemoth likely wouldn't be standing without some help from other executives. He credited Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky and venture capitalist Ron Conway, founder of angel investing firm SV Angel, for doing “incredible and gigantic amounts of work” with him during his brief ousting from his company in November 2023.
“There’s nothing quite like being in the foxhole with people to see what they can really do,” Altman wrote in a Sunday blog post. “I am reasonably confident OpenAI would have fallen apart without their help; they worked around the clock for days until things were done.”
Chesky and Conway achieved “legendary status” in Altman’s eyes because of their ability to remain calm and offer advice and strategies, as well as use their respective networks to solve complex problems.
“They stopped me from making several mistakes and made none themselves,” Altman said. “What I will remember most, though, is their care, compassion, and support.”
In November 2023, Altman was fired from the AI company he cofounded in 2015 for failing to be “consistently candid” with the board, the company said at the time. However, after two weeks of an internal schism, which included 770 OpenAI employees threatening to quit should Altman not return, Altman was reinstated as CEO.
“The whole event was, in my opinion, a big failure of governance by well-meaning people, myself included,” Altman said in his blog post. “Looking back, I certainly wish I had done things differently, and I’d like to believe I’m a better, more thoughtful leader today than I was a year ago.”
Spokespeople for OpenAI, Conway, and Chesky did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
Meetings of the minds
Following his ousting, Altman's initial reaction was to start another AI company, he told Bloomberg Businessweek in an interview published Sunday. He planned to pitch ideas to investors alongside OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman, who stepped down as president in solidarity with Altman before also returning to the position. Chesky and Conway—an Airbnb angel investor and one of the power brokers between Altman and OpenAI—both helped dissuade Altman from pulling the trigger on a project.
“You should be willing to fight back at least a little more,” Chesky told Altman, the New York Times reported.
Chesky said in a June 2024 CNBC interview that the hardest part of Altman’s absence from the company was two days in, when Emmett Shear briefly took over the company’s interim chief executive's position after the board had led Altman to believe he would be reinstated. Shear replaced Mira Murati, OpenAI's former chief technology officer who herself was CEO of the company for only a few days. As a friend of Shear’s, Chesky helped broker conversations among the former and current OpenAI CEOs and the company to ultimately restore Altman.
"When people are attacked, they typically go to themselves," Chesky said. "And Sam was focused not on himself, but OpenAI, and that made me want to fight for him."
Altman and Chesky have been friends for more than a decade, with Altman having mentored Chesky at startup accelerator Y Combinator in 2009. Chesky returned the favor as ChatGPT was gaining momentum in 2022, sometimes sitting with Altman for “three hours every other week,” listing off next steps and missteps, Altman told CNBC last year.
Chesky was “almost always right,” Altman said. “I learned to just always shut up and follow the advice.”
