What got Sheryl Sandberg into the AI race
My conversation with Sandberg and Nscale CEO Josh Payne, who she compares to Mark Zuckerberg. Also: Claude is turning into OpenClaw, Meta is snapping up AI startups like Infinity Stones, and more.
Happy Monday. I’m headed up to SF tomorrow for some meetings. On that note, if you have questions for OpenAI’s Codex team, drop me a line…
“My goal is to help them scale”
It took Paul Daversa, one of Silicon Valley’s most connected executive recruiters, to get Sheryl Sandberg on a call with Josh Payne. “I’ve left you alone for a long time,” Daversa told Sandberg. “This is the one to take.” She took it. Her opening line to Payne was, “I don’t do boards.”
A 30-minute call turned into 90. Then came a letter.
Over Christmas in Japan, Payne had written a strategic memo to his executive team laying out how he wanted Nscale to evolve over the next two years. Sandberg asked to see it. “The only person I’d ever seen write like that is Mark Zuckerberg,” she told me during a joint interview with Payne today.
