Founders Fund adds ex-OpenAI exec Ryan Beiermeister

Ryan Beiermeister has joined Founders Fund as a partner, she announced Monday, marking a new role just months after her abrupt exit from OpenAI.

Beiermeister spent about two years as OpenAI’s VP of Product Policy during the company’s rise into a household name after ChatGPT became the fastest-growing app in history. That stint ended in February, when she was reportedly fired after objecting to a planned ChatGPT feature called “adult mode,” which would have allowed adults to use the chatbot for erotica.

According to The Wall Street Journal, her firing also involved an accusation by a male colleague of sexual discrimination. Beiermeister said any allegation that she discriminated against anyone was “absolutely false.” In March, OpenAI reportedly dropped plans for adult mode.

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She has also drawn attention in Silicon Valley for her performance in “Mafia,” a Founders Fund YouTube show where players try to identify hidden killers before being eliminated themselves. Beiermeister appeared alongside Sam Altman, Palmer Luckey, Dylan Field, Ryan Petersen, Trae Stephens, and others. In one of Episode One’s most tense moments, she and Altman each said that if they turned up dead, it would mean the other was the killer.

Some viewers joked on Twitter that the appearance doubled as a job interview. A Founders Fund spokesperson told TechCrunch that it did not.

“Though she is an excellent Mafia player, that wasn’t part of her interview process. She has been close with Trae Stephens since they worked together at Palantir and has been friendly with our team for years.”

That connection runs deep. Before OpenAI and Meta, Beiermeister spent her early career at Palantir, the data company founded by Peter Thiel, who also founded Founders Fund. Trae Stephens worked at Palantir in its early days as well.

In a LinkedIn post, Beiermeister said she wants to back the kinds of startups Founders Fund is known for.

“The companies that will define the next twenty years are being built in the categories where product engineering is hardest and the stakes are highest — AI infrastructure and agentic systems, defense, energy, climate, biotech, the regulated frontier.” “To the founders in these domains, especially if you don’t fit the standard mold: I want to talk to you and my inbox is open.”