Aliisa Rosenthal joined OpenAI as the Head of Sales early when it was still a research lab with barely any commercial motion.
When ChatGPT launched, everything changed. What started as a “low-key product experiment” became one of the fastest growth stories in technology history. Aliisa helped build OpenAI’s go-to-market engine through that hypergrowth phase: scaling from 4 sales reps to 300+ people, navigating 10,000+ inbound enterprise leads per day, and helping grow the business from ~$10M to $10B in ARR.
In this candid fireside with Dini Mehta (EIR, Peak XV), Aliisa shares what it was really like inside OpenAI during the ChatGPT moment — the chaos, the decisions, the mistakes, and the GTM lessons every founder can apply:
🚀 The real story behind ChatGPT’s launch
🚀 How OpenAI handled 10,000+ enterprise leads per day with no CRM
🚀 Why enterprise GTM took 9 months to launch
🚀 The pricing experiments that shaped ChatGPT Enterprise
🚀 How she scaled the sales org from 4 reps to 300+
🚀 Why early-stage founders should delay quotas and use SPIFFs
🚀 The biggest GTM mistakes she would fix in hindsight
🚀 How AI is changing enterprise buying behavior
🚀 What application-layer AI companies she’s bullish on today
A must-watch for founders building AI companies, GTM leaders, and anyone curious about how one of the most consequential companies of our time scaled.
