OpenAI’s New Addition: The Co-Founder of Twitter Rival, Pebble

Gabor Cselle, the accomplished entrepreneur and former CEO of Pebble, a social platform alternative to X, has recently joined OpenAI to work on an undisclosed project. Cselle, who officially started in October, announced his new role on X only yesterday. “Will share more about what I’m working on in due time,” he wrote, hinting, “Learning a lot already.”

A Track Record of Success in Tech Startups

Cselle’s background includes founding multiple companies with successful exits. His first venture, reMail, a Y Combinator-backed mobile email startup, was acquired by Google. His second company, native advertising startup Namo Media, was bought by Twitter, years before Elon Musk’s acquisition and rebranding of the platform to X.

Nearly a decade ago, Cselle served as a group product manager at Twitter, where he contributed to optimizing the home timeline, user onboarding, and logged-out experiences. In 2016, he joined Google as a director at Area 120, the tech giant’s incubator for experimental projects and spin-offs.

In 2022, Cselle co-founded Pebble, initially branded as T2, alongside Michael Greer, former head of engineering at Discord. Pebble aimed to create a social experience emphasizing safety and moderation, building a dedicated community, and securing investments from angel backers, including Android co-founder Rich Miner. However, the platform struggled to achieve substantial growth. Pebble closed down last October, eventually re-launching as a Mastodon instance.

This May, Cselle joined South Park Commons, an accelerator, where he explored various generative AI concepts, including a tribute to the viral trivia app HQ Trivia. His recent focus on AI prototypes aligns with his transition to OpenAI, indicating a renewed emphasis on cutting-edge AI projects.

Cselle’s arrival at OpenAI coincides with another high-profile AI industry recruitment. OpenAI rival Anthropic has recently brought on Alex Rodrigues, founder of autonomous trucking firm Embark, as an AI safety researcher. Rodrigues guided Embark through a SPAC merger in 2021 before its acquisition by Applied Intuition earlier this year.

With an impressive entrepreneurial background and a history of groundbreaking tech innovations, Cselle’s move to OpenAI is a significant addition as the lab continues pushing the frontiers of AI research and development.

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