OpenAI Alumni Reunite to Launch $100 Million 'Zero Shot' VC Fund
OpenAI veterans launch Zero Shot, a $100M venture fund targeting deep-tech AI and robotics with a critical eye on industry hype.
A group of early OpenAI employees has reunited to launch Zero Shot, a new venture capital fund aiming to raise $100 million to back the next generation of artificial intelligence startups. The firm, whose name is a nod to the AI training concept of "zero-shot learning," has already reached its first close with $20 million in commitments.
The founding team brings together a unique blend of engineering pedigree and venture experience. The "OpenAI OGs" leading the charge include:
- Evan Morikawa: Former head of applied engineering at OpenAI, who oversaw the launches of ChatGPT and DALL·E.
- Andrew Mayne: OpenAI’s original prompt engineer and host of The OpenAI podcast.
- Shawn Jain: Former OpenAI researcher and engineer, and founder of the GenAI startup Synthefy.
- Kelly Kovacs: A seasoned venture capitalist and former founding partner at 01A.
- Brett Rounsaville: Former Twitter and Disney executive now serving as CEO of Interdimensional.
From Consulting to Capital
The transition to venture capital happened almost by accident. After leaving OpenAI, the founders found themselves inundated with requests from VC firms and fellow builders looking for technical guidance.
"Some of our friends were coming out of OpenAI and interested in doing companies," Andrew Mayne told TechCrunch. Seeing a disconnect between what VCs were funding and what the market actually requires, the team decided to leverage their deep technical insights to build their own fund.
The firm, whose name is a nod to the AI training concept of "zero-shot learning," has already reached its first close with $20 million in commitments.
Early Bets and Strategic Focus
Zero Shot has already deployed capital into three ventures:
- Worktrace AI: Founded by former OpenAI product manager Angela Jiang, this startup develops software to help enterprises identify and automate manual tasks.
- Foundry Robotics: A factory robotics startup that recently secured a $13.5 million seed round led by Khosla Ventures.
- Stealth Startup: A third investment remains undisclosed.
Avoiding the "AI Hype"
Perhaps more valuable than knowing what to back is knowing what to avoid. The Zero Shot team is vocal about their skepticism toward several current industry trends:
- "Vibe Coding": Mayne believes model makers will eventually integrate these capabilities directly, making standalone subscriptions unnecessary.
- Robotics Video Data: Morikawa is bearish on companies focusing on "ergo-centric video data" for robotics, arguing that the "embodiment gap" — the difficulty of transferring video knowledge to physical movement — is far from being solved.
- Digital Twins: Mayne suggests that standard Large Language Models (LLMs) are often more efficient than specialized digital twin startups currently on the market.
"There is a real skill in knowing how to predict where these models will be going next, because it’s extremely not obvious," Morikawa noted.
An Inner Circle of Advisors
The fund is further bolstered by a heavy-hitting roster of advisors from the OpenAI ecosystem, including Diane Yoon (former Head of People), Steve Dowling (former Head of Communications), and Luke Miller (former Product Leader). These advisors will share in the fund's carried interest, ensuring a deeply connected network for Zero Shot’s portfolio companies.
