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

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 trying, we're going to try and get to them all. But then we also have a huge normal show because—

Normal show, we got Marc Lore.

That's the first thing that's not changing. TVPN's not going away. We're going to be live every day, 3 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, it might be time to turn off the phone.

I think, yes, it might be time to turn off the phone.

Yeah, very, very strange. I think this is maybe the first time in history there's been a deal like this and then 2 people that are a part of it have to go and talk for 3 hours straight. But it's technology business as usual over here.

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—

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.

Yeah, maybe, maybe they could do more, but NASA has a decent e-commerce business too. We were watching, they were selling like 10,000 patches a minute or something like that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we were, 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 merch. So maybe go get some for yourself. Anyway, let's go over to Fiji Simoes' 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 TVPN. This acquisition brings a team with strong editorial instincts, deep audience understanding, and proven ability to convene influential voices across tech, business, and culture. That's—

I'm still going to be hitting the soundboard.

Yeah, yeah, you are. TVPM 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 The mission of bringing, 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. And that's exactly what TVPN has built, which is what I was gonna 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.

Yeah.

I don't think we can change that. Yeah. But there's also a lot of fear.

Yeah.

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 gonna continue to do. Yeah. If you wanna continue.

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. 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.

Yeah. And even when companies have approached us and said, we'll give you the exclusive, we don't—

Yeah, we'll say, give it to somebody else.

It's like, hey, you can come on the show.

We got a goal to scoop.

We actually want you to go talk to The Journal or The Times or Crunch, wherever, Bloomberg, et cetera, wherever you want to go.

And then come and contextualize it with us. Let us dig in and understand more about the strategy. 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, you You see, not 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. TVPN will sit within our strategy organization reporting to Chris Lahane. Really excited to welcome Jordi, John, Dylan, and the broader team. And here's a statement from you. Do you want to read this? What did you say?

Over the past year, we've had a front row seat not just to OpenAI, 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, Vijay, 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 in how this technology is distributed and understood globally is incredibly important to us.

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, it's, 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 years ago. I wrote him an email and said like, hey, like 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 5 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 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 wound out. And he was just a great addition to the negotiation and really and you were very young at the time.

You were just a wee lad.

I was.

You were about 23, 24 or something like that, right?

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 like 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, you know, say, hey, do you want to come on the show? And he was the first lab lead to come on the show. 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. And I'm excited for all the different competition and everything that's happening in the industry to, to continue. And push further. Jordi, 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. Yeah, it was just the two of us and Ben sitting in a room, couple of cameras. Couple of microphones, and I will just say I didn't know this special of a business relationship was possible between you and me. Yeah, like, I think, like, if you look back on that almost 500 days, we've had disagreements around strategy or approaches or things like that, but we have, like, 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.

And yeah, we did like one side project together and it took like 8 months and it was like not— it was like successful, but it was not like, oh yeah, like, okay, we were, we were working together daily for months, you know? Yeah, it was a lot of just, 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 3 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. And so it's just been, it's been the privilege 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— this very much is a team, like a team sport. Like 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. Brandon 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 like, you know, helped us shape our editorial approach and has been incredible. Dylan, who joined us, I guess technically Q4 of last year, you know, 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 3 hours every day.

He wrote the newsletter yesterday. So that's true. That's true. He wrote the op-ed.

Ben, Ben, who's been here since, since, since before TVPN.

He was working with me on my YouTube channel. When did we start working together?

I was here before Jordi.

Yeah, maybe like, wait, mid-2024, maybe something like that.

Sounds right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We traveled a lot, a lot of Pelican cases.

No, but it's been, it's been absolutely incredible to watch you grow from, from an extremely talented individual into 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, are such a joy to work with, even though what we do is not easy and it's changing day to day. To all the guests, seriously, it's been so much fun. 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.

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 a dream come true.

Yeah. So, so many guests have turned into dear friends. The Joe Weisenthals, the Dylan Patels. There's really too many to list, but we will have you all back on the show. And I can't wait. To everybody that's tuned in, whether you've watched the RSS feed, the live show, the clips, the newsletter, anything. You know, we've strived to create the right product regardless of how much time you have. If you have 2 minutes a day to read the newsletter, great. If you've got 5 minutes to watch some clips, if you want to watch the entire podcast, if you want to watch Diet TBPn, the Daily Cutdown, thank you. Thank you for tuning in. And fortunately, pretty much everything is going to stay exactly the same. Tyler. To our one and only Tyler. Tyler, you are truly, truly incredible. One of the brightest young people I've ever worked with. And you have such a bright future. 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, 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, you know, fully custom content management system, CRM. It helps us edit all of our videos. It is the backbone of the show. It's a It's a tool that the entire team uses on a daily basis. And truly, the show would not be possible without it. And yeah, your contributions on air as well, it's— It's amazing. 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.

Thank you, Joe.

And our sponsors. Yeah, we can start with, with the Ramp team. Eric, Eric, Kareem, and the whole, the whole team over there has just been incredible. They allowed us, you know, at the, at the beginning— sorry, the end of 2024 when we had started doing the show, we really loved it. They were— they committed to sponsoring the show for a year and that allowed us to do 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 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, truly. 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 of getting someone into the waiting room, into the show, making sure that they understand how the show will work. 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. He gets sent a lot of podcasts.

We sent him a link and a Google Drive.

And he listened, and from that first episode, even though it was very scrappy, he said, take this 100 times more seriously than you are right now. And we did. And it's the best advice that I've ever gotten. And he has been And we have a picture of him here.

We couldn't print it full size. And it appears that it 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 Senra who's been the podcast godfather, truly.

And the gong.

The chat is asking us to hit the gong. We have to oblige.

The gong will remain.

The gong will remain. Will Minitis has already Will 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 Minitis, the only, 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. You know, anytime on the show, you're welcome to leave a comment or chat in the— the chat is asking, where is Will Minitis right now? I don't know. Probably sailing a boat.

I don't know. Yeah. And yeah, it's an honor. Yeah. 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, getting this AI thing right. So we're very excited. 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, for first time since '72. To boldly go.

The crew of that is asking, is that 3 Diet Cokes? Yes. You got to thank— you got to thank Diet Coke.

Thank you to the Coca-Cola Corporation for making this possible.

Thank you to the Huberman team, the Mataína, for the Mataína Yerba Mates, the podcast in a can.

Yes.

Wouldn't be possible without you guys.

And thank you to tailors and suitmakers. There's a lot of people that make this possible. The horse, the prop department. There's a million things. Thanks, here. It's been a great time. So the crew of NASA Artemis II head to Cape Canaveral launch pad Wednesday for the first human spaceflight to the Moon in half a century. John Kraus 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. What an incredible moment. We talked about it a little bit. There's an article on the watches of NASA Artemis II.

John, we have to thank our lovely wives.

Of course.

How could we not?

Our families. Did you get a text?

Maybe. We don't talk about them a lot on the show.

Yes.

This is a show about technology and business, but they have been— they are the back— they're truly the backbones of the show and have put up with a lot of travel, late nights, a lot of phone calls, incredible hours, a lot of kids.

A lot of early mornings.

A lot of early mornings. I think out of the last— out of every single day that we've done the show, I haven't left the house past 6:00 AM maybe twice. It's been a long road. And the good news, ladies, is nothing's going to change. Thank you to both of you for supporting us and allowing us to do what we do.

Can we pull up this picture, Ben, in the production chat of the first episode that we recorded in the Jonathan Club in downtown, showing a little—

Yeah, I put it up earlier.

Oh, you did? Yeah, behind the scenes. This is such a wild time.

Remember that?

Yeah, remember that, Jordi?

Suitless.

Suitless.

We had the flag, but no suits.

It looked pretty good on camera. I was happy with the way it came out. But yesterday, the long-awaited Artemis II mission took to the stars en route to the moon for the first such manned mission since 1972. Rolling flashbacks. It's members of— why are you—

The chat asked for a flashbang. We had to oblige.

Oh, okay.

Flash out.

Okay. That's good. Yes. The flashbang has been a highlight. For sure. Both literally.

Yeah, the soundboard. It's truly, it's truly a character on the show.

And I have some too now. Its members all had Omega Speedmaster X-33 models strapped to their flight suits. Danny Milton just wrote a full article on the site now detailing the watches worn on the wrists of the 4 astronauts throughout their time as part of this mission. Watches have a long-standing history with spaceflight, most notably through the Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch, but there are countless others that have cemented their place in the cosmos So we can pull up this video now of the astronauts working on what looks like some type of tablet.

So here he is typing in—

Most secure password known to man. What is that, 9393 or something? 3939.

Powerful. Powerful.

We're going back to the moon. Apparently that video we played yesterday was a little bit of fake news. The young the adolescent who swears and says, "We're going to the effing moon." The real line, I believe, in the community note is that he says, "We're going to the frickin' moon." And it had been altered to add the actual F word. But the sentiment is still the same. It's very exciting, very inspirational.

And Jared Isaacman on launch day says, "Oh, this kid is definitely getting it back in NASA gear." That's great. Very cool.

There is some— there are some wrinkles with the launch. Fortunately, nothing like disastrous or catastrophic or anything. But the good news is that we're on our way back to the moon. The bad news is that the toilet's broken, apparently. And I believe this is from the live blog from The New York Times. The NASA associate administrator said there is a controller issue with a toilet on the Orion capsule and it would take a few hours to troubleshoot. We're just getting started, he said when addressing that and some other glitches with the space spacecraft. The spirit of Apollo 10 lives on. They said 135. They told us that. Here's another, uh, it seems like this is not the first time that this has happened, but we're hoping for the best here.

Sounds like there were some other issues with Outlook as well. We can pull up this video from Tom Warren. Can remote in and take a look directly.

Yeah, go for it. And then I also see that I have two Microsoft Outlooks and neither one of those are working. If you want to remote in and check—

two?

Why do you have two? Like web and desktop? Or you think it's like two separate desktop installations? Join in on your PC and we'll let you know when we're done.

Honestly, this is the best possible failure scenario is Outlook, not the rocket itself. So I think it's a good outcome. There were so many amazing images coming out yesterday.

Yeah.

Peyton Alexander says, this is the real reward for Artemis. This is who we are actually doing this for. They will grow up knowing they can one day work in their country's bases on the moon and Mars. We are not just abstractly hoping for a better world for them. We are going there. And two kids here watching the launch from Orlando. Just beautiful.

Yeah, my 5-year-old said it was boring, which is not what you want to hear, but we'll have to give some more context to him about how big of a deal it is. He was like, yeah, I don't know, maybe he wants more flashing lights on the screen.

We were driving for the actual launch. And it was so funny listening to the audio feed and sitting in traffic and just looking out at everyone and realizing that it felt like the majority of the world still wasn't paying attention or didn't care.

Yeah, I mean, rockets do launch every day now.

I know SpaceX has normalized it. To such a degree.

Isn't there some sort of subplot on the Apollo missions that by the third or fourth Apollo mission, there was no, like the actual viewership had dropped off and like the American population had gotten bored?

2.6 says put Subway Surfers on it. Yeah. On the NASA feed.

Crazy that you actually need to, maybe need to do this. How AI helped one man and his brother build a $1.8 billion company. Who needs more than 2 employees? That when artificial intelligence can do so many corporate tasks, it's super efficient and a little bit lonely. So Aaron Griffith tells the story of Matthew Gallagher, who took just 2 months, $20,000, and more than a dozen artificial intelligence tools to get his startup off the ground. From his house in Los Angeles, Mr. Gallagher, 41, used AI to write the code for the software that powers his company, produce the website copy, generate the images and videos for ads, and handle customer service. He created AI systems to analyze his business's performance, and he outsourced the other stuff he couldn't do himself. His startup, MedVie, a telehealth provider of GLP-1 weight loss drugs, got 300 customers in its first month. In its second month, it gained more than 1,000 more. In 2025, MedVie's first year in business, the company generated— or the first full year in business, the company generated $401 million in sales. Mr. Gallagher then hired his only—

This is absolutely insane because as GLP-1s were starting to take off, I had I remember distinctly talking with somebody that was like, I wanna start a telehealth company for GLP-1s. And at that time I was like, okay, there's a lot of telehealth companies that are at scale. They're all gonna be very quick. They're well aware of this. They will immediately introduce this product and other similar products to their customer base, and it's gonna be incredibly difficult to be competitive. And it turns out there's just such overwhelming demand for these products that you could come in as a new company and scale.

Like one year in, maybe he hires his only employee, his younger brother Elliot. This year they're on track to do $1.8 billion in sales. A $1.8 billion company with just two employees in the age of AI. It's increasingly possible, says Aaron Griffith in The New York Times. Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, predicted the rise of a new breed of super efficient company in 2024, a one-person business worth $1 billion. Would have been unimaginable without AI, he said on a podcast. And now it will happen. Now, as AI tools spread, entrepreneurs are harnessing the technology to expand their startups to an enormous scale at breathtaking speed with very few humans. Big companies, especially in tech, are getting in on the disruption too. Pinterest, Block, and others have cut thousands of workers in recent months, citing efficiencies enabled by AI.

Does this count yet, though? Like, I feel like to be the one-person, $1 billion company, you got to be able to log into your payroll tool and you're the only person in there. And he's got his brother in there.

Sorry, bro. Take a walk.

The startup, which has not raised outside funding, also has no official valuation, but many highly valued tech companies can only dream of hitting $1 billion in revenue with so few workers. MedVie is also profitable. That is great and important if you're bootstrapped. Can't compare to—

Is this a wrapper company? It's like a GLP-1 wrapper, but it's AI enabled, but it's not wrapping the AI foundation model. Using the tool to wrap another industry and just create the efficiency between the manufacturer and the actual distribution. It really is remarkable that they were able to hoover up so much revenue in such a competitive space, because you would assume that the other telehealth providers would have significant ad operations and that the margins on customer acquisition would be very, very tricky to crack. But he must have found some unique insight into how to distribute the product, get actual people to the website because the AI certainly can build the website and write the copy, but it can't necessarily get people to show up and actually put down their hard-earned cash for the product.

I texted my dad the news. He says, "Congratulations, that's so exciting. Thanks for letting me know. Talk to you soon. Have a great day." Thank you. Thank you, Dad.

Oh, it's amazing. Well, if you've texted me or you've called me in the last 3 hours, there's a good chance that I might respond to you in the next couple of hours. Leave us 5 stars on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Subscribe to our newsletter at tbpn.com. Everything is the same. We will see you on Monday at 11 AM Pacific.

Next week, 5 shows, 15 hours. Let's be honest, it'll probably be more like 17. Or 18 or 19. We'll see. Who knows?

The world is our oyster. And thank you for being with us along the journey. We appreciate it.

Let's get one more gong hit, John.

One more gong hit.

It's been an honor.

A gong hit! Flashbang! Flashbang! Goodbye, everyone!

See you soon.

We'll see you tomorrow.