Open AI Acquires TBPN, Artemis II, The AI-Built $1.8B Company | Diet TBPN

0:01John Coogan:We have some huge news. This is from the OpenAI blog. OpenAI acquires TBPN, accelerating the global conversation about AI. This is not an April Fool's joke. April Fool's was yesterday. We didn't do anything for April Fool's Day. This is real. This is a very interesting deal. I think a lot of people will be interested in this. We're very excited about this. We have a bunch of context and information to share about how this changes things, what changes, what doesn't. I'm sure there's a million questions. We're going to try and get to them all. But then we also have a huge normal show. Normal show.

0:35We got Mark Lohr. That's the first thing that's not changing.

0:38John Coogan:TVPN's not going away. We're going to be live every day, three hours, as long as we want. We have a lot of flexibility. We're going to do a lot of interesting things. If you are calling me right now, I can't pick up because I'm live. And I think you know... Yeah, I think it might be time to turn off the phones. I think, yes, it might be time to turn off the phones. Yeah, very, very strange. I think this is maybe the first time in history there's been a deal like this. and then two people that are a part of it have to go and talk for three hours straight. But it's technology business as usual over here.

1:07John Coogan:We're very excited about the Artemis II mission going successfully. Hopefully you all watched it. It was a lot of fun. We were watching it here on the screen, and we were gripped as the rocket took off because it's been so long. Yeah, we were so locked in. We were joking around that it felt like it should have been a pay-per-view. Like, could we turn space into a profit center for the government? Somebody was saying that it was not entertaining. I was extremely entertained. I don't know. Maybe they could do more, but I thought - NASA has a decent e-commerce business too. We were watching, they were selling like 10 ,000 patches a minute or something like that.

1:38Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:39John Coogan:I think we were doing the back of the envelope just from the main call to action at the bottom of the YouTube stream. They were selling a patch for, I don't know, tens of dollars and they'd sold like hundreds of thousands of them. So as we were watching, they were selling like something like$10 million worth of merch. So maybe go get some for yourself. Anyway, let's go over to Fiji Simo's post on the OpenAI blog. She shared this message with the company earlier today. She says, I'm excited to share that we've acquired TBPN. This acquisition brings a team with strong editorial instincts, deep audience understanding, and proven ability to convene influential voices across tech, business, and culture.

2:17I'm still going to be hitting the soundboard. Yeah, you are.

2:21John Coogan:TBPN has built something pretty special. It's one of the places where the conversations about AI and builders is actually happening day to day. A lot of you already watch it and rely on it to stay close to what's going on. As I've been thinking about the future of how we communicate in OpenAI, one thing that's become clear is that the standard communications playbook just doesn't apply to us. We're not a typical company. We're driving a really big technological shift. And with the mission of bringing AGI to the world comes a responsibility to help create a space for real constructive conversation about the changes AI creates with builders and people using the technology at the center.

3:00John Coogan:And that's exactly what TBPN has built, which is what I was going to say is the next line. That is a huge part of the show, is making sense of what's going on, how these tools are actually being used, all of the implications. We've gone all over the place, and we will continue to go all over the place. Yeah, and over the last year, like, you know, multiple years, there's just been so much uncertainty about AI. I don't think we can change that. But there's also a lot of fear. And just talking through it with the people that are actually helping diffuse AI through the economy across every single industry is something that we've enjoyed a tremendous amount and is exactly what we're going to continue to do.

3:38If you want to continue.

3:39John Coogan:Yeah. So she says, so rather than trying to recreate that ourselves, it made a lot of sense just to bring them in, support what they're doing, and help them scale while keeping what makes them special. A core part of this is editorial independence. We can say whatever we want because we're live and we don't need to run anything through anyone. It's not possible. It would be very difficult to have somebody here. Can we say this? I'm about to say a sentence. TBPN will continue to run their programming, choose their own guests, and make their own editorial decisions. That's foundational to their credibility and it's something we're explicitly protecting as part of this agreement.

4:12John Coogan:And also, we were never in the scoop industry. People were kind of asking, like, is this journalism? Is it commentary? I think we've always been like, hey, we like to talk to a lot of people, have a conversation, bring in people all over the place. Yeah, and even when companies have approached us and said, we'll give you the exclusive, we don't look for exclusive. Yeah, we'll say, give it to somebody else. It's like, hey, you can come on the show. We got a golden scoop. We actually want you to go talk to the Journal or the Times or Bloomberg, etc., wherever you want to go. And then come and contextualize it with us and let us dig in and understand more about the strategy.

4:43John Coogan:And so, TBPN will continue running their programming, choose their guests, and make their own editorial decisions. That's foundational to their credibility and something we're explicitly protecting as part of this agreement. I'm also excited to bring their amazing comms and marketing instincts to the team. We got lots of ideas, and we're very excited for this. They've helped many brands market online, and because they have a strong pulse on where the industry is going, their comms and marketing ideas have really impressed VGCMO, me. I can't wait to leverage their talent outside of the show to innovate on how we bring AI to the world in a way that helps people Understand the full impact of this technology on their daily lives TBPN will sit within our strategy organization reporting to Chris Lehane Really excited to welcome Jordy John Dylan and the broader team and here's a statement from you Do you want to read this?

5:29What did you say over the past year? We've had a front-row seat not just open AI but to the entire ecosystem covering the daily news announcements and launches in real time while we've been critical of the industry at times after getting to know Sam, VG, and the OpenAI team, what stood out the most was their openness to feedback and commitment to getting this right. Moving from commentary to real impact and how this technology is distributed and understood globally is incredibly important to us.

5:55John Coogan:I contextualize it a little bit more shared. You know, a lot of people are like, is this an April Fool's joke? I've been saying expect the unexpected. This is a plot twist. I'll give you that. It was unexpected. It was unexpected to me, But I'm really happy about it. And when I reflect on my career, I think it makes a lot of sense. And I can walk you through some of my career and my experience with OpenAI and with Sam Altman. I've known Sam for maybe 13 years. He invested in my first company in 2013. And then we got in a really serious logjam during a financing. And I wrote him an email. I told this story in Bloomberg a couple of years ago.

6:29John Coogan:I wrote him an email and said, like, hey, this is getting really rough. I'm a first time founder. I don't know if we're going to be able to get this done. And he called me and we hopped on the phone for like five minutes and he was able to completely resolve everything and everyone walked out of the deal feeling pretty good. And so that always left this impression on me that like he was founder friendly. Obviously he didn't, in this particular case, it was to my benefit, not particularly to his benefit, the way the deal like wound out. And he was just a great addition to the negotiation and really - And you were very young at the time.

7:04John Coogan:Yeah, I was extremely young. You were just a wee lad. I was, I was. You were about 23, 24, something in that range. Something like that, yeah. And then when I took my second company through YC, he was president at the time. And then when I joined Founders Fund, the very first deal that I saw in motion at Founders Fund was the post-ChatGPT round in OpenAI in late 2022, early 2023. And so I sort of had this front row seat to all of this. And then once we actually started growing TBPN, He was one of the first people that I texted to say, hey, do you want to come on the show? And he was the first lab lead to come on the show.

7:38John Coogan:And we're excited to continue having him on the show, hopefully have other lab leads on the show, have other people from all over the industry. And just generally, I think that when I was at Founders Fund, I was not particularly in the weeds of intra-venture capital fights. I was much more interested in the conversation around technological stagnation, not funding companies, not making great companies happen. I never was in a situation where I was like, oh, like if a different VC firm backs a great company, that's bad, you know. And I think that's the same philosophy that I have always taken forward and will continue to believe in, which is that the American AI industry is the most important thing and that will continue to be the case.

8:21John Coogan:And I'm excited for all the different competition and everything that's happening in the industry to continue and push further. And Jordy, did you have anything else to say? I just wanted to say some thank yous because a lot of people have been a part of this journey to date. It's been, I think, something like, let me do the math here. 496 days, roughly 16 months since we put out the first episode. It was just the two of us and Ben sitting in a room, a couple cameras, a couple microphones. And I will just say I didn't know this special of a business relationship was possible between you and me.

9:03I think if you look back on that almost 500 days, we've had disagreements around strategy or approaches or things like that. But we have almost universally stayed perfectly aligned on everything that matters every single day, every step of the way. And I think that's somewhat of a miracle given that we went into this not really knowing what it would become.

9:27John Coogan:Yeah, we did like one side project together and it took like eight months and it was like not, it was like successful. But it was not like, oh yeah, like okay, we were working together daily for months, you know. It was a lot of just jumping and leap of faith, right? Yeah, and I think we've got this question so many times, like do you guys get sick of each other? You know, you just have to talk to each other for three hours a day. And like I've said this before, I'll say it again. And it is actually hilarious. The second that we leave the office, we both get in the car, we call each other. We end up talking for like another hour on the way home.

10:06And so it's just been it's been the privilege of of a lifetime to just build this business with you and the whole team. The team has been absolutely incredible. You guys are all truly amazing. And this very much is a team sport. Business is a team sport, but this is like a live team sport. We come in here every single day. And the show doesn't happen if we don't all come in and make it happen. And so the consistency of the team has been just incredible. and watching everyone's individual talents just flourish has been incredible. A lot of people came into this, you know, having done a thing or two in the past, but learning new things.

10:55Brandon has been absolutely incredible, just an absolute rock in the organization. Brandon, if you're not familiar, writes our newsletter every day and is just remarkably consistent and has helped us shape our editorial approach. And it's been incredible. Dylan, who joined us, I guess, technically Q4 of last year. I'd worked with him at my last company, but is truly, truly one of a kind, remarkable. I never want to do business without him. and he has just done such an exceptional job working off air. It's like, you know, challenging when you're building a company and you're also having to put on a live performance for three hours every day.

11:44John Coogan:He wrote the newsletter yesterday. That's true. The op-ed. He wrote the op-ed. Ben, who's been here since day one. Since before TBPN. He was working with me on my YouTube channel. When did we start working together? I was here before Jordy. Yeah, maybe like mid 2024, maybe something like that. Sounds right. Yeah, we traveled a lot. A lot of Peloton cases. No, but it's been absolutely incredible to watch you grow from an extremely talented individual and two, a very capable and talented manager and building out a team of people that are so hardworking and wonderful. And, you know, Michael, Scott, Jackson, you guys, you know, are so, you know, such a joy to work with, even though what we do is not easy and it's changing, you know, day to day.

12:42To all the guests, seriously, it's been so much fun. Like, if you went back and rewound to the beginning of the show, we started with no guests. We did something like 50 episodes without any guests. We thought that there was a time that we thought we would just do that forever. Because that was the only thing that was, you know, really unique about the show.

13:06John Coogan:Like, that's the reason I started creating content in 2020. Because it was during COVID, there were no events, there were no places to meet other founders meet other business people i wasn't thinking of it as like a media business i was thinking of it as like a way to just have conversations and meet other people who are building companies and now we get to do that all day long which is just yeah dream come true yeah so so many so many guests have turned into to dear friends yeah you know the the joe weisenthal's the the dylan patels uh there's there's really too many to list but we will have you all back on the show.

13:41I can't wait. To everybody that's tuned in, whether you've watched the RSS feed, the live show, the clips, the newsletter, anything. We've strived to create the right product regardless of how much time you have. If you have two minutes a day to read the newsletter, great. If you've got five minutes to watch some clips, if you want to watch the entire podcast. If you want to watch Diet TBPN, the daily cut down, thank you. Thank you for tuning in. And fortunately, pretty much everything is going to stay exactly the same. To our one and only Tyler. Tyler, you are truly, truly incredible. One of the brightest young people I've ever I've ever worked with, and you have such a bright future.

14:32You know, we always knew that I've felt from the very beginning that you would go on to start your own company, and we cherish every single minute that we have with you. And we're going to do our very best to retain you for decades, but thank you for everything you've brought to the show, everything you've built. Tyler, if you're just tuning in now, has built all of the internal software that we use to run the show. It's insane stuff. It is a fully custom content management system, CRM. It helps us edit all of our videos. It is the backbone of the show. It's a tool that the entire team uses on a daily basis, and truly the show would not be possible without it.

15:20And, yeah, your contribution is on air as well. It's so much fun to be able to cut over to you. And so it is with great honor that I give you this soundboard.

15:41And our sponsors. We can start with the RAMP team, Eric Kareem, and the whole team over there has just been incredible. They allowed us, you know, at the beginning, sorry, the end of 2024, when we had started doing the show, we really loved it. They committed to sponsoring the show for a year, and that allowed us to do so much in terms of investing in all the equipment that we use, hiring people. They made it possible and have been truly, truly exceptional partners. And, you know, watching Ramp's growth over the last couple of years has just been phenomenal. and they deserve all the success. And every other sponsor that has been a part of this.

16:29Yeah. Truly.

16:30John Coogan:Shout out Nick as well. Oh, did he not get one? Oh, we got to get a direct shout out for Nick. We got to get a direct shout out for Nick. We don't know what to call Nick. We can't give his name on air because he'll get 10 times more emails. The lineup every day is crafted by Nick. He is our liaison to 99 % of the guests that come on the show. Sometimes it starts with an interaction over X or a text message or there's other intermediaries involved. There's a lot that goes into actually getting someone into the waiting room, into the show, making sure that they understand how the show will work.

17:07John Coogan:It's sort of like you're hot dropping into this live show. That's new for a lot of people. and Nick does a great job communicating and parsing all the noise to understand what the best news of the day is, how we can contextualize it best with the optimal guests and he's done a fantastic job and will continue. It's an honor. David Senra. Yeah. One of a kind. He literally inspired us to grind harder. Yeah, David was our very first listener that I'm aware of. Yeah. He gets sent a lot of. We sent him a link in a Google Drive. And he listened. And from that first episode, even though it was very scrappy, he said, take this, take this, you know, 100 times more seriously than than than you are right now.

17:56And we did. And it's it's the best advice that I've ever gotten. And he has been.

18:00John Coogan:And we have a picture. We have a picture. Picture of him here. We couldn't print it full size. And he appears that he was printed on a black and white photo printer, but it's a black and white photo and he's a black and white brand. So thank you to David Senera, who's been the podcast godfather, truly. And the gong. The gong. The chat is asking us to hit the gong. We have to oblige.

18:26The gong will remain.

18:28John Coogan:The gong will remain. Wilmanitis has already chimed in with his take. He says, many people are saying we're in the deal guy, Yuga, many are saying. And it means a lot that Will Manitis. He is the only guest who has co-hosted a full show from start to finish with us. And if you want to go back in the archives, you can watch that episode. It's a wild one. It was in a hotel room. We had yet to figure out the remote shows fully. The team worked really hard to make that one happen. Very chaotic. It was a good time. Very chaotic. Is there anything else to say about OpenAI? I mean, of course, we'll be in conversation with you forever.

19:07John Coogan:Anytime on the show, you're welcome to leave a comment or chat in the chat is asking, where is Wilmanitis right now? I don't know. Probably sailing a boat. I don't know. Yeah. And yeah, it's an honor to partner with OpenAI and every single person on the team that we've had the pleasure of meeting. We've been impressed by. They are ridiculously talented, and every single person is committed to getting this AI thing right. So we're incredibly excited. Great. Well, let's move on to the Artemis II pictures and images and news. Very, very exciting. It made the front of the Wall Street Journal. NASA aims to orbit Moon for first time since 72 to boldly go.

19:54John Coogan:The crew of NASA... Chad is asking, is that three Diet Cokes? Yes. I got four now. You got to thank Diet Coke. Thank you to the Coca-Cola Corporation for making this possible. Thank you to the Huberman team for the Mateina, Yerba Mates, the podcast in a can. Yes. Wouldn't be possible without you guys. And thank you to tailors and suit makers. There's a lot of people that make this possible. The horse, the prop department. There's a million things here. It's been a great time. So the crew of NASA Artemis 2 head to Cape Canaveral launch pad Wednesday for the first human space flight to the moon in half a century.

20:33John Coogan:John Krause posted an incredible photo. Is he someone who actually, yeah, he. Special comms assistant. Special comms assistant. He actually goes to the launches and brings special photography gear to get the best possible photos. And man, did he deliver with this one. And what an incredible moment. We talked about it a little bit. There's an article on the watches of NASA Artemis 2. John, we have to thank our lovely wives. Of course. How could we not? Our families. Did you get a text? Maybe.