Today, I’m thrilled to share some exciting news: Statsig, a company we’ve repeatedly backed from Day Zero, is joining OpenAI. This marks a remarkable milestone for Vijaye Raji, the Statsig team, and for all of us who have had the privilege to be part of their journey.
When I think about Statsig’s success, three things immediately come to mind.
First, world-class product velocity. From day one, Statsig set the standard for how fast great products can be built. The team’s culture of rapid experimentation, building, testing, learning, and moving forward, has been best in class. It’s no surprise that hundreds of companies, from startups like Notion to category leaders like Rippling, have relied on Statsig to power their product development.
Second, deep customer empathy. Statsig was never about building tools for the sake of tools. Vijaye and his team listened intently to their customers and did whatever it took to help them succeed. That DNA of customer obsession fueled adoption across companies large and small, and positioned Statsig as a true enabler of the intelligent applications era. Importantly, that same customer-first approach will continue to guide Statsig as part of OpenAI.
Third, a bold culture. In a time when the world was figuring out remote and hybrid models, Statsig doubled down on five days a week in the office. That choice fostered a high-performing, deeply collaborative culture; a reminder that sometimes the simplest choices create the strongest foundations.
Of course, great companies are ultimately about great people. I first met Vijaye almost two decades ago at Microsoft, when he was building Small Basic, a tool to make programming accessible for kids and new developers. Even back then, his passion for empowering builders was clear. After ten years at Microsoft and ten more at Facebook, where he saw the power of data-driven product experimentation firsthand, he took the leap to found Statsig. And what a leap it was: from zero to scale and some of the world’s most innovative companies as customers.
It was no surprise, then, that just last week, Statsig was named to the 2025 IA40, the top 40 intelligent application companies shaping the future. This recognition underscored what we’ve long believed — Statsig is not only helping its customers build better products, it is itself one of the defining intelligent applications of our time.
Now, as Statsig becomes part of OpenAI, that mission will continue — uninterrupted — and at an even greater scale. As a part of this acquisition, the entire Statsig team will be joining OpenAI. Once the acquisition is finalized, Statsig will continue operating independently and serving its customer base out of its Seattle office. Customers remain the team’s top priority, and OpenAI will take a measured approach to any future integration to ensure continuity. OpenAI has long been a significant customer of Statsig, and bringing the platform in-house will accelerate experimentation across the Applications org while ensuring stability for existing customers.
At the same time, Vijaye will step into a pivotal new role as CTO of OpenAI Applications. This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a once-in-a-lifetime entrepreneur and an extraordinary opportunity to extend Statsig’s impact while keeping its mission front and center.
This moment also reflects something larger happening in our industry. We are in the midst of the AI platform wave. A wave every bit as transformative as the shift to cloud or mobile. OpenAI has been at the center of this transformation, not just advancing frontier models but also enabling entirely new categories of intelligent applications. These applications are built on data, experimentation, and continuous learning — exactly the principles that Statsig has embodied from the start. That continuity of purpose is why bringing these two forces together makes so much sense.
At Madrona, we could not be more proud. From the earliest days, we believed Statsig was building something foundational — an intelligent applications enabler that would change how software gets built. Today, as they join forces with OpenAI, that vision is expanding to reach an even broader audience.
Congratulations to Vijaye and the entire Statsig team. This is both a fantastic outcome and an inspiring new beginning. Most of all, it is a continuation of the same mission: Helping product teams everywhere build smarter and faster. And I can’t wait to see where Vijaye and the team take this next chapter.
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