OpenAI is starting the new year with another strategic acqui-hire. The prominent AI company is bringing on the team behind Convogo, a business software platform designed to assist executive coaches, consultants, talent leaders, and HR departments in automating and enhancing leadership assessments and feedback reports.
An OpenAI representative clarified that the company is not acquiring Convogo’s intellectual property or technology. Instead, the team is being hired to contribute to its “AI cloud efforts.” The three co-founders—Matt Cooper, Evan Cater, and Mike Gillett—will reportedly join OpenAI through what a source familiar with the situation described as an all-stock transaction.
Convogo’s product will be shut down.
The startup originated from a “weekend hackathon,” inspired by a question from Cooper’s mother, an executive coach: could an AI tool automate the tedious task of report writing, thereby allowing her more time for the personal coaching work she enjoys? Over the past two years, Convogo has supported “thousands” of coaches and partnered with the “world’s top leadership development firms,” according to an email from Convogo announcing the acquisition.
In the email, the team explained that the fundamental issue they identified in their work was bridging the gap between the potential of each new model release and translating that into tangible, real-world results.
“We are now more convinced than ever that the key to bridging that gap lies in thoughtful, purpose-built experiences, much like what we created for coaches at Convogo,” the founders wrote. “That’s why we are thrilled to join OpenAI to continue our mission of making AI accessible and useful for professionals across every industry.”
This Convogo acqui-hire represents OpenAI’s ninth acquisition within a year, based on PitchBook data. In nearly all these acquisitions, the product was either integrated into OpenAI’s ecosystem—as seen with Sky, the AI interface for Mac, or Statsig, a product testing firm—or completely discontinued as the team moved to OpenAI, exemplified by Roi, Context.ai, and Crossing Minds.
The Convogo deal further underscores that OpenAI, like its competitors, employs mergers and acquisitions to accelerate talent and capability development. The primary exception to this trend is OpenAI’s acquisition of Jonny Ive’s io Products, which is continuing its product roadmap as the two companies collaborate on creating an AI hardware device.