OpenAI’s Former Sales Leader Joins VC Firm Acrew: OpenAI Taught Her Where Startups Can Build a ‘Moat’

OpenAI’s Former Sales Leader Joins VC Firm Acrew: OpenAI Taught Her Where Startups Can Build a ‘Moat’

How AI Startups Can Build a Moat After OpenAI’s Sales Chief Joins VC In a fast-moving AI market where giants like OpenAI seem to dominate every corner, how can startups possibly survive—let alone thrive? The answer may lie in specialization and deep contextual understanding, according to Aliisa Rosenthal, OpenAI’s former head of sales, who just joined venture capital firm Acrew Capital as a general partner. Her move from building OpenAI’s enterprise sales team to backing early-stage companies signals a strategic shift—and offers a roadmap for founders navigating an increasingly crowded AI ecosystem. Credit: Acrew Capital Rosenthal spent three pivotal years at OpenAI, helping scale its commercial operations from a two-person team to hundreds. During that time, she witnessed the launch of game-changing products like ChatGPT, DALL·E, Sora, and ChatGPT Enterprise. Now, she’s bringing those hard-won insights to the world of venture capital—with a clear message: there’s still room for startups…