When the Board of OpenAI fired Sam Altman, arguably one of the finest generative AI business visionaries in the world right now, it scored an own-goal. Why did they fire him? Possibly, Sam does not know how to write very long memos since the complaint was on “communication”. Yes, they did not accuse him of not delivering economic value, not creating the right products and not doing the typical things which boards hire CEOs to do.

With that own-goal, Microsoft which has funded OpenAI’s ChatGPT jumped for the Sam’s team. Today, the team will be working with Microsoft to extend the mission. As that happens, watch out for the displacement of ChatGPT primarily because if Sam’s team can bake the right products in Microsoft, the tech giant may not see a lot of interest in wasting time with deeper collaborations with OpenAI. 

Why? What made ChatGPT amazing is not just the algorithm and code, but decades of Microsoft data which supported its evolution. If you disconnect the data, ChatGPT will stall. And that is the risk ChatGPT faces right now. The other investors should hope that Microsoft does not follow that path because if you take out the data coming from Bing and other Microsoft sources, ChatGPT will be like another PhD thesis.

The power unused is the most potent power because no one knows the extent of its efficacy, the Igbo axiom posits. But when it is used, people now know how effective it is. OpenAI used its “firing power” and became bare [Igbo sons and daughters, I do not want to use the right translation out of decency here] in the market because we have seen that while it can fire Sam, it is unable to “unfire” him, as they tried unsuccessfully.

When the Board of OpenAI fired Sam Altman, arguably one of the finest generative AI business visionaries in the world, it scored an own-goal. Why did they fire him? Possibly, Sam does not know how to write very long memos since the complaint was on “communication”. Yes, they did… pic.twitter.com/AJLFWpc4Jt

— Ndubuisi Ekekwe (@ndekekwe) November 20, 2023

Comment: “So I’m thinking that with Microsoft assimilating Sam, they’d still trail behind ChatGPT” . My response: If Microsoft stops providing data to train ChatGPT, it becomes a PhD project. There are better models in the world than ChatGPT but none has the data that Microsoft and Google have as they own search engines with all data. Without the Microsoft data, ChatGPT will fade over time.

In December 2020, I introduced the concept of fintechnolization: “a construct that every digital platform must have a maturity state of offering a fintech solution. I had watched all great digital platforms on how they ended up providing fintech solutions even when they began in an unrelated sector.”

Other great media organizations have picked that construct. Ladies and Gentlemen, the greatest digital logistics, ecommerce, agtech, etc startups of the future will offer a fintech solution, because financial services is the operating system of commerce and industry. And as that happens, embedded finance will become a critical business category of the 21st century.

How do you plan to make profit on that digital platform?

Fintechnolization of Platforms – Expect This Redesign in Startups

A business model encapsulates the essence of a firm by providing the compass on how to create value in the company. It is the logic of a business and when you commit to one, you have committed all the factors of production in that business to a destiny. And as you execute that model, creating value in that firm, pricing becomes critical.

At Tekedia Mini-MBA, we have eminent pricing faculty to guide you. Yes, our Faculty members understand the physics of pricing, and how an efficient pricing playbook can unlock growth in a business.

Go here and register for the next edition of Tekedia Mini-MBA and get our early bird discounts with our free books. Do it and let us co-learn in Africa’s largest business school for entrepreneurial capitalism.

Still on OpenAI’s firing of its CEO, Sam Altman, who is a Co-founder, but with no equity! OpenAI is the creator of ChatGPT, the most exciting digital product of this decade: “Sam Altman’s missing equity. Altman had a board seat and was the best-known OpenAI personality. Aside from a small investment through a YCombinator fund (Altman was formerly its president), he doesn’t have any equity in the company. And that meant he didn’t have much control if anything turned against him.”

Young People, being a co-founder does not mean you hold a voting rights power  in a company. In short, you can be given 1 share in a company with 1,000,000,000 units, to make you a legal co-founder. But you can check the difference between 12 and a dozen, with 1 unit in 1,000,000,000 units of shares!

If you visit the old career page of Rocket Internet, the creator of Jumia, they used to have many co-founders’ jobs. Simply, they hire you, give you a role to start something in your country, with the title “co-founder” and loads of cash. Your indigenous  citizens think a home-boy is starting the next big thing, and come out to support.

But watch, over time, they replace you, and take over the management of the business. I have written about this “Co-founder as a Service” here https://www.tekedia.com/hiring-co-founders/. There are many co-founders in the world who are just employees, but are used to gain market positioning, by using their [you fill them] to advance into new markets and territories.

Of course, Sam is not complaining because he is a big boy; just trying to help someone on how capitalism plays on titles to advance missions.

ChatGPT-maker Open AI fired its co-founder and CEO Sam Altman on Friday.

Comment on Feed

Comment 1: Thank you for sharing this insightful perspective on co-founder dynamics. As an ecommerce consultant, I’ve seen similar patterns play out with direct-to-consumer brands.

Titles alone don’t confer decision-making power or equity. Doing proper due diligence on the operating agreement and share structure is so important.

Have clear goals and expectations set from the beginning on vision, governance, exits. Misalignments down the road causes major headaches.

Comment 2: I love your write up but I believe that a CEO’s best job security is his vision. Yes majority vote decides who get to be the CEO but it hardly decides what the profit will be. Sam Altman just like Steve Jobs before him knows how to monetize AI and he will get new suitors soon. As for founders, it will always be good to have equity, this will help the organisation in having stability in the early days. Profit maximization is the primary objective of organisations. If you have the skills to increase the organisation’s bottom line even if you lose out due to politics you won’t be out of job for long.

Comment 3: Cofounder  is not necessarily co-owner ?. Know the difference.

Comment 4: It is truly ironic how the principal person to lost his job to AI was actually the Co-founder of ChatGPT, a product of Artificial Intelligence itself. Well, but that’s on a jovial note.

On a serious note, I expected nothing less from Enterprise Capitalists. They actually don’t care about the morals or ethics, just the figures.

Seems the board members wanted more revenue, and Sam couldn’t provide that or doesn’t have the model yet. Thus, the next best alternative was to fire him. Hopefully, just like Apple did ran to Steve Jobs for help, let’s see how far they can run without Sam and Greg.