Altman, Jobs, Musk: What Do They Have in Common?

Sam Altman, the “father of ChatGPT” and former CEO of OpenAI, is a founding member of the company. He was the CEO of the renowned Silicon Valley venture capital firm Y Combinator. In 2015, he gathered investors to establish OpenAI, a non-profit organization to “democratize the benefits of advanced AI.” However, eight years after its founding and one year after the release of its key product, ChatGPT, the company’s board of directors dismissed him.

It’s not uncommon for boards to oust the founders of tech startups from their companies. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, and Elon Musk, who created X.com, the precursor to PayPal, both had similar experiences. The Washington Post reported these incidents on the 20th: “It’s unclear how OpenAI will resolve the situation, but such conspiracies are not new in the world of tech startups and successful founders.”

① Apple: Steve Jobs

Jobs is the man behind Apple, which became the most valuable company in the world this year, achieving a market capitalization of $3 trillion. Initially, Apple, a computer manufacturing company, began in Jobs’ bedroom in California in 1976 and later moved to his parents’ garage, where they built the business.

Apple, the company he created, dismissed Jobs just one year after the launch of the Macintosh computer in 1985. He struggled with then-CEO John Sculley and clashed with the board over salary issues. Jobs tried to oust Sculley from the company by proposing a vote to the board, but internal opinion turned against Jobs, forcing him to leave the company.

Jobs took a few Apple employees and founded Next, a high-performance computer manufacturing company Apple later acquired. He returned to the CEO position at Apple in 1997. Subsequently, he created the iMac, iTunes, Apple Store, and iPod, followed by the iPhone, iPad, and App Store, playing a significant role in the company’s growth into a global enterprise. Jobs, who grew the company in this way, passed away in 2011 from pancreatic cancer.

② PayPal: Elon Musk

Musk, who currently serves as the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), Neuralink, and The Boring Company, also has a history of founding PayPal and being ousted from the company. Musk founded the financial services company X.com in 1999, and in 2000, he became the CEO of PayPal, a company created through the merger of X.com and online bank Confinity.

However, Musk’s tenure did not last long. On his way to his honeymoon in Australia in September of the same year, the board dismissed him. He had repeated clashes with the board over his autocratic management style and branding strategies, and co-founders Peter Thiel and Max Levchin eventually ousted him.

In his biography released this year, Musk recalled the situation, saying, “At first, I was furious. I thought of assassination.” He added, “But in the end, I realized it was fortunate that I was overthrown. Otherwise, I would still be living as a slave at PayPal,” and said, “Of course, if I had stayed, PayPal would have become a trillion-dollar company.”

③ Tesla: Martin Eberhard

While Musk is credited with elevating Tesla to its current status as the world’s largest electric vehicle company, American electrical engineer and entrepreneur Martin Eberhard founded the company. The Washington Post explained that Eberhard accurately predicted the revolution of lithium-ion batteries and founded the company in 2003, serving as its first CEO. He believed that electric cars could outperform internal combustion vehicles if lithium-ion batteries were well-made.

Eberhard, the founder of Tesla, was dismissed in 2007 by Musk, who was then the board chairman. Musk, who had made a fortune when eBay acquired PayPal, became Tesla’s largest shareholder and exercised his management rights to dismiss Eberhard. The reason for his dismissal has not been disclosed, and Eberhard sued Musk over it. However, the situation ended in September 2009 when the two reached an agreement.

Under Musk’s leadership, Tesla grew into the world’s largest electric vehicle company, and Musk became the world’s wealthiest person based on this success.

Eberhard, the founder of Tesla, was named one of the 24 Top Innovators by Fortune in 2007. This led the e-book market by launching NuvoMedia and Rocket eBook in 1997 and 1998 before founding Tesla. He currently identifies himself as a “retired businessman” on social media.

④ X (formerly Twitter): Noah Glass and Jack Dorsey

Noah Glass and Jack Dorsey are American IT entrepreneurs and software developers who created the social media Twitter (now X). They also have a history of the board ousting them. The founders of Twitter were Glass, Dorsey, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone, and conflicts among them led to dismissal incidents.

In summary, Glass founded the podcast company Odeo in 2005 and developed the idea for a microblogging platform where users could leave short posts. He named it Twitter and built the technology. Dorsey was working at the company with Williams and Stone, and in 2006, the three joined forces to buy the assets of Odeo, which Glass owned, and dismissed Glass.

However, their unity did not last long. After Glass was ousted, Williams, exhausted by Dorsey’s erratic behavior, ousted Dorsey in 2008. Dorsey returned in 2015 and stepped down from Twitter again in 2021. Musk acquired Twitter last year and changed its name to X this year.

Since 2005, Glass has been running Olo, a B2B software company that develops online food ordering and delivery technology. Dorsey remains a shareholder of X and an investor in the microblogging SNS BlueSky.

By. Jeong Hyun Jin