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A new venture capital fund with deep ties to OpenAI has made its first close on its $100 million goal, the founders tell TechCrunch. The partners have already written a couple of checks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fund is called Zero Shot<\/a> (a play on the AI training term) and its co-founding team includes several OpenAI OGs who found themselves becoming VCs almost by serendipity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Three of the founding partners hail from OpenAI. Evan Morikawa, the former head of applied engineering during the launch of DALL\u00b7E and ChatGPT through Codex, is now at robotics startup Generalist.\u00a0Andrew Mayne, OpenAI\u2019s original prompt engineer, is well-known as the host of The OpenAI podcast.<\/a>\u00a0Mayne also founded Interdimensional<\/a>, an AI deployment consultancy.\u00a0And Shawn Jain, an engineer and former researcher at OpenAI, who then became a VC and is a founder of his own GenAI startup, Synthefy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The alums are joined by VC Kelly Kovacs, previously a founding partner at 01A, the growth-stage venture firm founded by Dick Costello and Adam Bain<\/a>. The fifth founding member of the fund is\u00a0Brett Rounsaville, formerly of Twitter and Disney, who is also CEO at Mayne\u2019s Interdimensional.<\/p>\n The OpenAI alums have \u201cbeen friends for years,\u201d Mayne told TechCrunch, having worked together at the model maker from before it released ChatGPT through its wildest growth years.<\/p>\n After leaving, they all\u00a0found themselves constantly being hit up to consult for VCs about emerging AI tech, and by founder friends wanting advice. That\u2019s what propelled Mayne to start his consulting company.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSome of our friends were coming out of OpenAI and interested in doing companies,\u201d Mayne said.<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA<\/span> The alums saw gaping holes between the many AI startups being funded and what the market really needed. <\/p>\n \u201cMaybe we should do our own fund, because we think we have a pretty good sense of where things are headed, and we have this great access to people who we think are incredible builders,\u201d\u00a0Mayne said, recalling the decision.<\/p>\n After conversations with institutions and family offices and closing the first $20 million, the partners set their sights on an $100 million initial fund. They\u2019ve already written a few checks.<\/p>\n Zero Shot backed early OpenAI product manager Angela Jiang and her startup Worktrace AI. The startup is developing an AI-based management software platform to help enterprises automate tasks by first discovering what should be automated. Worktrace AI raised a $10 million seed round from notables like Mira Murati and OpenAI\u2019s Fund, Pitchbook estimates.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n