{"slug": "openai-nabs-key-patreon-execs-ahead-of-upcoming-announcement", "title": "OpenAI nabs key Patreon execs ahead of upcoming announcement", "summary": "OpenAI has hired three former Patreon executives — co-founder and technology chief Sam Yam, former product head Drew Rowny, and former engineering head Shannon Ma — to lead a new Creator Product effort, Yam announced on X. Yam said the team will \"build together with Creators at OpenAI and share early access to a new set of tools\" he expects to be valuable to creators and their communities, with an announcement teased as upcoming. Rowny and Ma stepped down from Patreon in the past few weeks.", "body_md": "# OpenAI nabs key Patreon execs ahead of upcoming announcement\n\nBy Jess WeatherbedSource: \n\n[The Verge AI](https://www.theverge.com)\nOpenAI has hired three former Patreon execs to anchor its product strategy for creators. After starting the creator subscription platform 13 years ago, co-founder and technology chief [Sam Yam announced on X](https://x.com/samyamiam/status/2102503574492332141) that he's joining OpenAI to lead Creator Product. He's also bringing Patreon's former product head [Drew Rowny](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/drowny_last-week-i-wrapped-up-four-of-the-most-meaningful-share-7497665160883412993-vjZn/) and engineering head [Shannon Ma](https://lnkd.in/p/eM9EF_r4) with him on the new venture, both of whom stepped down in the past few weeks.\n\n\"We're going to build together with Creators at OpenAI and share early access to a new set of tools that I think will be critically valuable to Creators and their communities,\" Yam said in his announcement. \"Pay [attention](https://www.machinebrief.com/glossary/attention) …\n\nGet AI news in your inbox\n\nDaily digest of what matters in AI.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-nabs-key-patreon-execs-ahead-of-upcoming-announcement", "canonical_source": "https://www.machinebrief.com/news/openai-nabs-key-patreon-execs-ahead-of-upcoming-announcement-yr0g", "published_at": "2026-09-23 11:02:39+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-23 12:32:06.989822+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-products"], "entities": ["OpenAI", "Patreon", "Sam Yam", "Drew Rowny", "Shannon Ma"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-nabs-key-patreon-execs-ahead-of-upcoming-announcement", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-nabs-key-patreon-execs-ahead-of-upcoming-announcement.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-nabs-key-patreon-execs-ahead-of-upcoming-announcement.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-nabs-key-patreon-execs-ahead-of-upcoming-announcement.jsonld"}}