Sherwin Wu
About Sherwin Wu
Sherwin Wu is a Member of Technical Staff at OpenAI, where he leads engineering for the API and developer platform. The team builds the products developers use to build on OpenAI models.
He joined OpenAI in September 2022 and is described as an early team member. Before that he was an engineering manager and product lead at Opendoor from December 2016 to March 2022, working on pricing machine learning models and data infrastructure. He started his career as a software engineer at Quora, on news feed ranking and recommendations, and interned at Palantir and Doximity.
Wu holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Engineering in Computer Science from MIT. He is based in San Francisco.
Crunchbase lists one personal investment for Sherwin Wu, a seed round in Ploy. The sources do not describe him as running a fund or investing full time. No check sizes or other angel deals are public.
Wu is named as an angel investor in Ploy, an AI marketing platform founded by former Webflow co-founder and CTO Bryant Chou. Ploy raised a $27M seed round in June 2026, led by First Round Capital and Y Combinator. Other angels named in coverage include Eoghan McCabe, Josh Kim of Cursor and Lenny Rachitsky.
Ploy builds AI agents for website building and optimization, outbound outreach and ad creation.
Wu has not published an investment thesis, stage preference or check size. His one known deal is an AI application company at seed. In a February 2026 conversation on Lenny's Podcast, he said he expects AI to produce many more small startups, including B2B SaaS and software companies, and fewer venture-scale outcomes. His OpenAI platform experience may be relevant to founders building developer-facing or AI-native software, but he has not said that is what he invests in.
- Ploy: AI marketing platform that builds and manages company websites, outreach and ads. Wu was an angel in its $27M seed round, announced June 2026.
- crunchbase.com/person/sherwin-wu-9c4c
- ababnews.com/news/f793e855-8a3e-46a4-8143-a8aa38ae6f5c
- finsmes.com/2026/06/ploy-raises-27m-in-seed-funding.html
- simplify.jobs/c/Ploy
- theorg.com/org/openai/org-chart/sherwin-wu
- sancus.vc/team/sherwin-wu
- lennysnewsletter.com/p/engineers-are-becoming-sorcerers
- benzinga.com/markets/tech/26/02/50632038/openais-engineering-lead-says
Investing activity
Sherwin Wu appears in 1 AI deal tracked by the Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $27M. The rounds are mostly Seed, with a median round size of $27M. The most recent is Ploy (Seed, $27M, Jun 2026).
Sherwin Wu most often invests alongside Ullas Naik, First Round Capital, Y Combinator and Hyphen Capital, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Sherwin Wu
Who is Sherwin Wu?
Sherwin Wu leads engineering for OpenAI's API and developer platform. He previously worked at Opendoor and Quora.
Has Sherwin Wu invested in AI startups?
Yes. He is named as an angel investor in Ploy, an AI marketing platform that raised a $27M seed round in June 2026.
What is Sherwin Wu's angel check size?
It is not public. He has not stated a check size in the sources we found.
What stage does Sherwin Wu invest in?
He has not stated a stage focus. His one known investment is a seed round.
How can founders contact Sherwin Wu?
He is on X at @sherwinwu and on LinkedIn. He has not published pitch guidelines.
Is Sherwin Wu an angel investor?
Yes. Sherwin Wu invests personally as an angel.
What AI companies has Sherwin Wu invested in?
Sherwin Wu's AI investments include Ploy. The 1 round on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
What stage does Sherwin Wu invest at?
In the rounds tracked on Lounge, Sherwin Wu has invested at Seed, with a median round of $27M.
Who does Sherwin Wu co-invest with?
Sherwin Wu's most frequent co-investors on Lounge are Ullas Naik (1 deal), First Round Capital (1 deal), Y Combinator (1 deal), Hyphen Capital (1 deal) and Lenny Rachitsky (1 deal).
How can founders reach Sherwin Wu?
Founders on Lounge can see Sherwin Wu's contact details in AI Investor Contacts (paid plans), check for a warm introduction through members who worked with them under Warm Paths, and add Sherwin Wu to their Investor Pipeline to track the conversation.