# From Research Lab to Record-Breaking Product: How OpenAI Engineered for Unprecedented Scale w/ Sulman Choudhry, Samir Ahmed & Lawrence Bruhmeller #242

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Podcast: [The Engineering Leadership Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-engineering-leadership-podcast-743839)
Published: 2025-12-30T22:29:51+00:00
Episode link: https://sfelc.com/podcasts
Audio file: https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/afp-942744-injected.calisto.simplecastaudio.com/4d87e711-78c0-43f3-9633-fa05520e07f2/episodes/cfe7f703-348c-439a-a65c-64e7a2433c7a/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=4d87e711-78c0-43f3-9633-fa05520e07f2&awEpisodeId=cfe7f703-348c-439a-a65c-64e7a2433c7a&feed=Z8Dl_qAv
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Duration seconds: 1528

## Resource

This is a special episode, highlighting a session from ELC Annual 2025! OpenAI evolved from a pure research lab into the fastest-growing product in history, scaling from 100 million to 700 million weekly users in record time. In this episode, we deconstruct the organizational design choices and cultural bets that enabled this unprecedented velocity. We explore what it means to hire "extreme generalists," how AI-native interns are redefining productivity, and the real-time trade-offs made during the world's largest product launches. Featuring Sulman Choudhry (Head of ChatGPT Engineering) and Samir Ahmed (Technical Lead), moderated by Lawrence Bruhmeller (Eng Management @ Sigma).

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