Years ago Thrive Capital invested in OpenAI. Yesterday, OpenAI announced it invested in Thrive Holdings, a division of Thrive Capital that intends to leverage AI in two areas that employ many U.S. citizens, accounting and IT.
Thrive Holdings rollup workers can leave their stressful office and enjoy hyper-personalized AI health coaching, courtesy of Thrive AI Health, brought to you by OpenAI Startup Fund (sounds like a PEU) and Arianna Huffington.
Joshua Kushner founded Thrive Capital, a private equity underwriter (PEU), over fifteen years ago. His brother Jared Kushner of Affinity Partners reportedly invested in Thrive Capital. Josh's PEU has been an early equity holder in many companies started by people recognized today as TechGods.
OpenAI is Thrive Capital's top investment according to TRACXN. And now OpenAI has an equity stake in Thrive Holdings.
Reuters reported:
Thrive Holdings is a vehicle created by Josh Kushner's Thrive Capital to focus on buying traditional businesses in an AI-roll up play. Founded this year, the firm has raised over $1 billion to acquire service providers across the country, such as accounting and IT firms, aiming to overhaul their operations using AI to boost efficiency.
The collaboration will focus on AI application in professional services, particularly through reinforcement learning. This research technique uses feedback from domain experts to continuously train and improve the AI models for highly specialized functions.
Thrive Holdings will own the intellectual property and products created through the joint effort. OpenAI, in addition to its equity, gains insights from seeing its models tested and refined in real-world enterprise environmentsMost people do not have a personal accountant or their own IT department but citizens might recall damage done by PEU rollups in hospital emergency rooms, specialty medical practices, dental offices, HVAC service companies, veterinary offices, and hospices.
Many are trying to use AI in their work and finding the output less than satisfactory as it (workslop) requires much rework. 85% accuracy is a poor standard, made worse by hallucination (something made up out of nowhere by AI).
Anuj Mehndiratta, partner at Thrive Capital who oversees Thrive Holdings, said the deal was necessary after it ran into "research problems much sooner" while deploying AI models. The firm found that "off-the-shelf" solutions were insufficient for complex, domain-specific tasks in its portfolio companies.AI was insufficient for performing quality accounting or IT work. Once again, accountants and IT professionals have to train their replacement. It's no longer the foreign H-1B worker that will do their job for much less. It's Thrive Holdings-OpenAI collaboration, now asking professional staff in rollup companies to train their AI replacement.
OpenAI's Sam Altman might have just the tonic for stressed out accountants and IT professionals, Thrive AI Health.
Your AI health coach (OpenAI) can help reduce the stress from having to train that problematic AI (also OpenAI) in accounting or computer coding. Got it. No real people involved, except those accepting the fees/profits.
Just what society needs more of from TechGod products. We already have reduction of appropriate boundaries, addiction, erosion of interpersonal skills and self esteem, loneliness, decline in cognitive function, exposure to the worst of humanity manipulating tech for harmful and even criminal pursuits.
Accounting and IT are professions with knowledge bases that are broader than one company. They require analytical skills and judgement. Thrive Holdings and Open AI are coming for independent accounting and IT firms. Are you ready to be rolled up and rolled out the door after training your replacement?
That's what happens when PEUs and TechGods get together. Your employer becomes their sandbox in which to play. And you become the grain of sand.
Update: My wise friend sent me these quotes (from the Making Hay substack):
“Let us accept truth, even when it surprises us and alters our views.” -George Sand
French romantic novelist (actual name Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil, but her pen name clearly ties in more closely with today’s topic)
“Capitalism was the only system in history where wealth was not acquired by looting, but by production, not by force, but by trade, the only system that stood for man’s right to his own mind, to his work, to his life, to his happiness, to himself.” -Ayn Rand
(birth name: Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum; married name: Alice O’Connor; pen name rhymes with “Sand”)
The Substack article regarded an oilfield frac sand company, thus the references to Sand and Rand. In the small world camp I recently did a piece on Carlyle's comparing AI to the shale boom. In it I mentioned the risk to life driving in the direction of the oil field from 18 wheelers hauling frac sand and oilfield chemicals. The weight tore up roads which then needed repairs. Add young men texting while operating a super heavy big rig to the mix and things were dangerous. On a regular basis people were killed in road accidents. People said it smelled like money to them.
Update 12-3-25: PEUs rolled up doctor practices in an area such that they could control clinical volumes through incentives and manipulate physician compensation in an area/region. The bounty went to the PEU not the doctor or provider and patients suffered. Elected officials did little to nothing.
AI is worse in that it is an outright thief, appropriating individual knowledge as well as that of a whole profession, and giving no credit much less fair long term pay or equity for those making/creating the AI professional model. The bounty will go to OpenAI and Thrive Holdings, TechGods & PEUs.
Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and their new TechGod/CryptoBro brethren. Increasingly, more are one.
