Mira Murati, co-founder of Thinking Machines and former OpenAI CTO, has invested in Worktrace AI, a new firm created by Angela Jiang, an early OpenAI product manager and ChatGPT developer.
Worktrace AI is in seed stage and aims to fund approximately $10 million, with a valuation target of $50 million. Murati’s support demonstrates her ongoing influence and interest in backing investments both upstream and downstream in the AI ecosystem.
What this means for creators
Keep an eye on who is investing. When builders become backers, new options for collaboration, side initiatives, and alignment emerge.
If you work on AI tools, onboarding, or productivity technologies, startups like Worktrace are likely to become customers in the future. Consider how your work fits inside their stack.
Additionally, having a strong founder/operator background is becoming a difference. If you’ve developed and shipped anything, it gives you credibility when you later fund or cofound others.
Also read: Pinpoint’s $2.5M seed to turn social actions into sales
What this means for entrepreneurs
There is growing support for “builders backing builders.” Credible founders are rising as investors and operators. This affects the way you pitch (value, not just capital).
Early-stage AI is still dangerous, therefore deep subject expertise, technical credibility, and good execution will be more important than hype.
Murati’s investment in a business focused on product and tooling implies that value lies in helping others beyond front-end AI products.
