Sam Yam, then Patreon’s co-founder and president, on Centre Stage at Web Summit 2018 in Lisbon
“We’re going to build together with Creators at OpenAI and share early access to a new set of tools that I think will be critically valuable to Creators and their communities,” Sam Yam wrote on X.
The Patreon co-founder started the company 13 years ago and served as its technology chief. Yam announced on Tuesday that he is joining OpenAI to lead Creator Product. Two former Patreon executives are going with him: Drew Rowny, its head of product, and Shannon Ma, its head of engineering.
Both Rowny and Ma stepped down from Patreon in the past few weeks, The Verge reported.
A pointer to DevDay
Yam did not say what the new tools are. He told followers to pay attention to OpenAI DevDay next week. The developer event is set for Tuesday, 29 September, according to The Verge.
His thread also linked to a post Sam Altman published on 17 September. In it, the OpenAI CEO wrote that the main thing he had been excited to launch that week would come the following week instead.
Yam wrote that he was becoming active on X again and experimenting with some early tools there. He thanked Altman for his support in bringing the team over.
Patreon this year
Patreon laid off 20% of its staff in January, according to The Verge. The company later published an extensive update roadmap to overhaul its user features, including its discovery for smaller creators.
OpenAI’s run of senior hires
The move adds to a string of senior hires at OpenAI. Last week it named its first worldwide sales chief, Brian McCarthy. In August, it hired Meta’s Sandhya Devanathan to lead Southeast Asia and Australia. It has also been buying teams, including camera startup Glass Imaging this month.
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