Founders Fund hires former OpenAI exec Ryan Beiermeister (and not because of her Mafia skills)

Ryan Beiermeister has joined Founders Fund arsenic a partner, she announced connected Monday. Beiermeister is well-known successful Silicon Valley for a fig of reasons. For one, anterior to this role, she spent astir 2 years arsenic VP of Product Policy astatine OpenAI arsenic it became a household name, soon aft ChatGPT became the fastest-growing app successful history.

That vocation prime ended abruptly successful February erstwhile she was reportedly fired aft objecting to a planned ChatGPT feature called “adult mode,” which was going to let adults to usage the chatbot for erotica. The Wall Street Journal reported that her firing progressive an accusation by a antheral workfellow of intersexual discrimination, though Beiermeister called immoderate allegation that she discriminated against anyone “absolutely false.” In March, OpenAI reportedly scrapped plans for big mode.

More precocious Beiermeister has go well-known successful Silicon Valley for her skillful strategy successful a Founders Fund YouTube show called “Mafia.” The crippled involves discovering which players are concealed Mafia killers earlier those players tin “kill” the remainder of the players.

Beiermeister played the crippled against OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anduril’s Palmer Luckey, Figma’s Dylan Field, Flexport’s Ryan Petersen, Founders Fund’s Trae Stephens, and respective others.

One of the astir aggravated scenes successful Episode One progressive her and Altman each saying that if they were recovered dead, it would mean the different was the killer. Those who knew the past laughed.

Some commented connected Twitter that possibly the full Mafia crippled was truly a occupation interrogation for her. The game, according to the firm’s main selling serviceman and the game’s MC, Mike Solana (who brought the crippled to the firm), is often played astatine Founders Fund retreats.

However, it wasn’t. “Though she is an fantabulous Mafia player, that wasn’t portion of her interrogation process. She has been adjacent with Trae Stephens since they worked unneurotic astatine Palantir and has been affable with our squad for years,” a Founders Fund spokesperson told TechCrunch.

Though the mode Beiermeister played the crippled — coolly, making analytical observations and arguments astir who mightiness beryllium Mafia — couldn’t person wounded her prospects.

Still, Beiermeister has known Trae Stephens for astatine slightest a decade. Prior to her relation astatine OpenAI, and astatine Meta earlier that, she spent her formative years astatine Palantir, the large information institution founded by the VC firm’s founder, Peter Thiel. Stephens besides worked astatine Palantir successful its aboriginal days.

Beiermeister says she’s astir funny successful backing the kinds of startups that Founders Fund is known to gravitate toward.

“The companies that volition specify the adjacent 20 years are being built successful the categories wherever merchandise engineering is hardest and the stakes are highest — AI infrastructure and agentic systems, defense, energy, climate, biotech, the regulated frontier,” she wrote in a LinkedIn post. “To the founders successful these domains, particularly if you don’t acceptable the modular mold: I privation to speech to you and my inbox is open.”