CEO of Bengaluru-based startup says ChatGPT-maker OpenAI’s Sam Altman is logged into Slack workspace: “Seeing him online…”

The founder and CEO of SuperKalam, a Bengaluru-based startup, has revealed an unexpected source of inspiration: the online presence of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. SuperKalam leverages OpenAI’s AI models to develop personalized learning experiences for UPSC exam aspirants.
“We have Sam Altman on our Slack workspace. Seeing him online itself makes me work harder all the time.Amazing story,” Vimal Singh Rathore, the CEO of SuperKalam, said in a post on X.

SuperKalam’s connection with OpenAI

Rathore said in the comments section that the company collaborated with OpenAI team during their early phase in 2023.
“We collaborated with OpenAI team to help us with @SuperKalam_ during very early phase. Jan 23,” he said.
He also said that since his team worked with the OpenAI team, the ChatGPT-maker was “kind (enough) to give us that kind of access.” SuperKalam leverages OpenAI’s GPT-4 and GPT-3.5 AI models.
In a post shared on X in June last year, Rathore was among a group of a handful of people who met Altman during his trip to India. He was part of an event with developers at IIIT-Delhi.
“Thrilled to meet @sama in person. Equally exciting is to be building in AI,” he wrote on X.

A few weeks later, he shared a video of another event with Altman, this one taken during the Y Combinator alumni meet.
According to Rathor’s LinkedIn profile, Vimal Singh Rathore, along with Aseem Gupta, founded SuperKalam in July 2023. The startup is backed by Y Combinator, Google for Startups, Good Water Capital, FundersClub, Titan Cap, AngelList, iSeed, Kunal Shah (CRED), Gaurav Munjal (Unacademy), Dan Reich, Sujeet (Udaan) and Tanmay Bhat.