Laura Modiano, who leads OpenAI‘s startups division in EMEA, said American founders are "almost shameless" in how boldly they make demands and share feedback with the ChatGPT maker, urging European founders to do the same.
OpenAI Exec Calls For More Founder Feedback
Modiano, also an angel investor, said, “American founders being extremely good, almost shameless, and coming in and saying: ‘We need this. You need to get better at that.’ If founders don’t tell us, we don’t always know,” according to CNBC.
She urged European founders to speak up more or risk missing out on valuable opportunities.
“Please, please, please, if you’re using OpenAI … you should always tell us what you think about it,” Modiano said.
Modiano cited Lovable, a European company valued at $1.8 billion, as a strong example of effective feedback. The Swedish vibe coding startup’s GPT-5-powered Lovable Assistant 5 was granted early alpha access.
“I was in their office for a week, and literally every hour, we were having reviews,” she said. “GPT-5 launching actually had the taste of European developers included in the model.”
AI Startups Should Have A Feedback Chief
The OpenAI executive said that every AI startup should have a “chief feedback officer,” emphasizing the importance of understanding user needs. “We can only ship and include things in our roadmap, whether it’s new features or improvements, if we know what customers want,” she said.
These comments contribute to the ongoing discussion about European startup culture.
Earlier this year, some venture capitalists argued that European founders need to work seven days a week to compete on a global scale, though some tech leaders have pushed back against excessive work culture.
More recently, U.K. Business Secretary Peter Kyle criticized British university students for not showing the same entrepreneurial drive as their American peers.
Harry Stebbings, founder of 20VC, also noted Europeans are not as good at marketing themselves when pitching to venture capitalists.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
