Reflections from a Former OpenAI Employee: Culture and Challenges in Hypergrowth
A former OpenAI employee shares their reflections after a year at the company. They describe the cultural impact of OpenAI's rapid expansion from 1000 to 3000 employees, highlighting challenges in communication, organizational structure, and product launches. Internal communication relies entirely on Slack, management is flat, and the company values action and results. Their involvement in the Codex launch showcased the thrill of building a product from scratch in a 7-week sprint, but also revealed codebase and infrastructure issues arising from rapid growth. The author concludes by summarizing their OpenAI learnings and suggesting that joining a large AI lab is a viable option for founders, as the AGI race intensifies with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google leading the pack.