OpenAI acquires the team behind AI executive coaching tool Convogo

OpenAI is starting the new year with another job acquisition. The AI ​​giant has acquired the team behind Convogo, a business software platform that helps executive coaches, consultants, talent leaders and HR teams automate and improve leadership assessments and feedback reports.

An OpenAI spokesperson said the company is not acquiring Convogo’s IP or technology, but is instead hiring the team to work on “cloud AI efforts.” The three founders — Matt Cooper, Evan Cater and Mike Gillette — will join OpenAI as part of what a source familiar with the matter described as an all-stock deal.

The Convogo product will be terminated.

The startup began as a “weekend hackathon” sparked by a question posed by Cooper’s mother, an executive coach: Could an AI tool automate the report-writing process so she could spend more time doing the human coaching work she loves? Over the past two years, Convogo has helped “thousands” of coaches and partnered with “the world’s top leadership development companies,” according to an email carrying news of the acquisition sent by Convogo.

In the email, the team wrote that the real problem they discovered in their work is how to bridge the gap between what is possible with each new model release and how to translate that into real-world results.

“We are convinced now more than ever that the key to closing this gap lies in thoughtful, purpose-driven experiences, like what we built for coaches at Convogo,” the founders wrote. “That’s why we’re thrilled to join OpenAI to continue our work to make AI accessible and useful to professionals in every industry.”

The Convogo acquisition marks OpenAI’s ninth acquisition in one year, according to PitchBook data. In almost all of these acquisitions, the product was either integrated into the OpenAI ecosystem — as in the case of Sky, an AI interface for the Mac, or Statsig, a product testing company — or shut down completely as the team joined OpenAI, as in the cases of Roi, Context.ai, and Crossing Minds.

The Convogo deal also signals that OpenAI, like its competitors, is using mergers and acquisitions as an accelerator for talent and capabilities. The main exception to this rule is OpenAI’s acquisition of Jonny Ive’s io products, which continues its product roadmap as the two companies work together to create a piece of AI hardware.