OpenAI Engages Convogo Co-founders: Startup to Complete Work
In early 2026, OpenAI entered another 'acqui-hire' deal, meaning they hired the Convogo startup team without buying the product itself. Convogo developed an AI-based tool for automating reporting and assessing leadership qualities in HR, consulting, and coaching.
What is Known
According to an OpenAI spokesperson, the company is not acquiring Convogo's intellectual property — only hiring the team to work on 'AI cloud efforts.' Three Convogo co-founders will join OpenAI: Matt Cooper, Evan Cater, and Mike Gillett. The deal was made in an all-stock format (i.e., only in shares).
The Convogo product will cease operations. Over its two-year existence, the tool was used by thousands of professionals, with leading companies in the leadership development field among its partners.
In their farewell letter, the team notes that their work revealed a deeper issue — how to turn the potential of new AI models into practical results. That is why, in their opinion, it is important to create 'meaningful, specialized solutions' — as they did for coaches.
Convogo became OpenAI's ninth acquisition of the year, according to PitchBook data. Most previous acquisitions ended either with product integration into the OpenAI ecosystem (as in the case of Sky or Statsig) or its closure (Roi, Context.ai, Crossing Minds). An exception is Jony Ive's io Products project, which develops its own hardware in collaboration with OpenAI.
Source: TechCrunch
