Founders Fund hires former OpenAI exec Ryan Beiermeister (and not because of her ‘Mafia’ skills)
Founders Fund hires former OpenAI exec Ryan Beiermeister (and not because of her ‘Mafia’ skills)
Founders Fund 聘请前 OpenAI 高管 Ryan Beiermeister（并非因为她玩“黑手党”游戏的技术）
Ryan Beiermeister has joined Founders Fund as a partner, she announced on Monday. Beiermeister is well-known in Silicon Valley for a number of reasons. For one, prior to this role, she spent about two years as VP of Product Policy at OpenAI as it became a household name, shortly after ChatGPT became the fastest-growing app in history. Ryan Beiermeister 周一宣布，她已加入 Founders Fund 担任合伙人。Beiermeister 在硅谷因多种原因而广为人知。首先，在担任此职务之前，她曾在 OpenAI 担任产品政策副总裁约两年，当时正值 ChatGPT 成为史上增长最快的应用程序，OpenAI 也因此家喻户晓。
That career choice ended abruptly in February when she was reportedly fired after objecting to a planned ChatGPT feature called “adult mode,” which was going to allow adults to use the chatbot for erotica. The Wall Street Journal reported that her firing involved an accusation by a male colleague of sexual discrimination, although Beiermeister called any allegation that she discriminated against anyone “absolutely false.” In March, OpenAI reportedly scrapped plans for adult mode. 她的这段职业生涯在二月份戛然而止，据报道，她因反对 ChatGPT 一项名为“成人模式”的计划功能而被解雇，该功能旨在允许成年人将聊天机器人用于色情内容。据《华尔街日报》报道，她被解雇涉及一名男性同事对其提出的性别歧视指控，尽管 Beiermeister 称任何关于她歧视他人的指控都是“绝对虚假的”。据报道，OpenAI 在三月份取消了“成人模式”的计划。
More recently, Beiermeister has become well-known in Silicon Valley for her skillful strategy in a Founders Fund YouTube show called “Mafia.” The game involves discovering which players are secret Mafia killers before those players can “kill” the rest of the players. Beiermeister played the game against OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anduril’s Palmer Luckey, Figma’s Dylan Field, Flexport’s Ryan Petersen, Founders Fund’s Trae Stephens, and several others. 最近，Beiermeister 因其在 Founders Fund 的 YouTube 节目“黑手党”（Mafia）中展现出的精湛策略而在硅谷声名鹊起。该游戏要求玩家在被“杀”掉之前，找出谁是隐藏的黑手党杀手。Beiermeister 与 OpenAI 的 Sam Altman、Anduril 的 Palmer Luckey、Figma 的 Dylan Field、Flexport 的 Ryan Petersen、Founders Fund 的 Trae Stephens 等人同台竞技。
One of the most intense scenes in Episode One involved her and Altman each saying that if they were found dead, it would mean the other was the killer. Those who knew the history laughed. Some commented on Twitter that maybe the whole Mafia game was really a job interview for her. The game, according to the firm’s chief marketing officer and the game’s MC, Mike Solana (who brought the game to the firm), is often played at Founders Fund retreats. However, it wasn’t. 第一集中最紧张的场景之一是她和 Altman 互相指认，称如果自己被发现“死亡”，那就意味着对方是杀手。了解他们背景的人都笑了。一些人在 Twitter 上评论说，也许整个“黑手党”游戏实际上就是她的面试。据该公司的首席营销官兼游戏主持人 Mike Solana（他将该游戏引入公司）称，这个游戏经常在 Founders Fund 的静修活动中进行。不过，这次并非如此。
“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,” a Founders Fund spokesperson told TechCrunch. Though the way Beiermeister played the game — coolly, making analytical observations and arguments about who might be Mafia — couldn’t have hurt her prospects. “虽然她是一名出色的‘黑手党’玩家，但这并不是她面试过程的一部分。她与 Trae Stephens 自在 Palantir 共事以来就一直关系密切，并且多年来一直与我们的团队保持友好关系，”Founders Fund 的一位发言人告诉 TechCrunch。不过，Beiermeister 在游戏中的表现——冷静、对谁可能是黑手党进行分析观察和辩论——肯定对她的职业前景有所加分。
Still, Beiermeister has known Trae Stephens for at least a decade. Prior to her role at OpenAI, and at Meta before that, she spent her formative years at Palantir, the big data company founded by the VC firm’s founder, Peter Thiel. Stephens also worked at Palantir in its early days. 尽管如此，Beiermeister 与 Trae Stephens 至少相识十年了。在加入 OpenAI 之前，以及更早之前在 Meta 工作时，她曾在 Palantir 度过了她的成长岁月，这是一家由该风投公司创始人 Peter Thiel 创立的大数据公司。Stephens 也曾在 Palantir 的早期工作过。
Beiermeister says she’s most interested in backing the kinds of startups that Founders Fund is known to gravitate toward. “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,” she wrote in a LinkedIn post. “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.” Beiermeister 表示，她最感兴趣的是支持那些 Founders Fund 一贯青睐的初创公司。“那些将定义未来二十年的公司，正诞生于产品工程难度最大、风险最高的领域——人工智能基础设施和智能体系统、国防、能源、气候、生物技术以及受监管的前沿领域，”她在 LinkedIn 的帖子中写道。“对于这些领域的创始人，特别是如果你不符合传统模式：我想与你交流，我的收件箱随时为你敞开。”