Fundraising Fox
John Coogan
InvestorFounderCo-Founder & Host at TBPN · Founder at Lucy Goods, Inc · CTO at Soylent · Former EIR at Founders Fund
Los Angeles, California, United States
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About
John Coogan co-founded TBPN, the daily tech talk show OpenAI bought in April 2026 in its first acquisition of a media company — terms were undisclosed, with the Financial Times putting the price in the low hundreds of millions. He had already co-founded two consumer companies: Soylent, where he was co-founder and CTO from 2013 to 2017 and helped scale the meal-replacement brand from a one-bedroom San Francisco apartment into a 50-person business doing nine figures of revenue, and Lucy, the tobacco-free nicotine brand he started in 2016 with Soylent colleagues David Renteln and Samy Hamdouche and took through Y Combinator. Between them he spent 2023 to 2025 as an entrepreneur in residence at Founders Fund and built a 450,000-subscriber YouTube channel telling technology stories, a format he turned into a live daily show with Jordi Hays in October 2024.
Beyond investing
- Founded
- Co-founded Soylent, described as the biggest crowdfunded food product ever. Co-founded Lucy, a company offering a safer nicotine alternative. Co-founded TBPN with Jordi Hays; the first episode published on October 4, 2024 under the show's original name, the Technology Brothers podcast, and it became a three-hour weekday live stream after rebranding to TBPN in 2025. Co-founded Soylent in 2013 with David Renteln, Rob Rhinehart and Matt Cauble and served as CTO until 2017, scaling it from a one-bedroom San Francisco apartment to roughly 50 people and nine figures of revenue. Starco Brands acquired Soylent in February 2023, years after he left. Co-founded Lucy in 2016 with David Renteln and Samy Hamdouche and serves as CMO; the tobacco-free nicotine company went through Y Combinator's W18 batch and raised a $10M Series A led by RRE Ventures in 2020.
- Hobbies
- Enjoys appearing on podcasts and has a personal rule of never turning down a legitimate podcast invitation.
- More
- OpenAI acquired TBPN on April 2, 2026 — its first media-company acquisition. The show sits inside OpenAI's Strategy org under Chris Lehane, and the agreement explicitly protects TBPN's editorial independence over programming and guest booking. His first startup, begun straight out of college with David Renteln, raised $17,000 and shut down after about six months. Entrepreneur in residence at Founders Fund from 2023 to 2025; he has said the first deal he saw in motion after joining was the firm's post-ChatGPT round in OpenAI in late 2022. Has worked with Sam Altman for over a decade: Altman funded his first company in 2013, was Y Combinator's president when Lucy went through the accelerator, and was the first frontier-lab chief to appear on TBPN. Runs the JohnCooganPlus YouTube channel, about 453,000 subscribers of long-form technology storytelling, and writes at johncoogan.com.
Mentioned above: the Y Combinator mafia → · the Founders Fund mafia →
From John's own website — common ground for a warm intro.
Co-Founder & Host at TBPN
Co-founders at TBPN
Founder at Lucy Goods, IncYC W18
Intro paths
John went through Y Combinator (Winter 2018) — any YC alum in your network can reach them through the YC community.
In turn, John can intro founders to Lucy Goods, Inc's investors below.
Lucy Goods, Inc's investors · 11
Co-founders at Lucy Goods, Inc
CTO at SoylentYC S12
Intro paths
John went through Y Combinator (Summer 2012) — any YC alum in your network can reach them through the YC community.
In turn, John can intro founders to Soylent's investors below.
Soylent's investors · 10
Co-founders at Soylent
Investments
Per curated public sources.
Podcasts & interviews
featuring John CooganBrainstorming +$1M Business Ideas With Soylent's Co-Founder | ft. John Coogan (#496)
My First Million
Some Math Problems, Scott Morton Breaks His Silence, Arsenal-2, Porsche Mission S
John Coogan
Le Chonk, Buffet's Just Like You, TJ Parker Returns, Dylan Field Joins
John Coogan
Minecraft AI Mods, Should You Sell Your Companies Data, Construction Paper Really Fell Off
John Coogan
BYOCompute, Pope Destroys False Idol, Ben Affleck's White Pill
John Coogan
Timeline Mud Wrestling, Apple Play Coming to Old Porsches, SI Domain Debate
John Coogan
6 more appearances
- Ken Griffindor School of Market Wizardry, Supper Intelligence, GDP per GW2026-10-01
- 🔴 LIVE from OpenAI DevDay2026-09-30
- Some Personal Agent News, Mongo Got Zucked, SNL, Gstaad Guy In The Ultradome2026-09-29
- Cursor Acquisition Closes, Bezos x Liverpool, Flying Roadster, Car Week, Gen Z Trends2026-08-15
- SaaSpocalypse Revisited, DeepMind's Plan, Polestar Collapse, Aman vs Ryan Walker2026-08-14
- Kushner and Iger are Buying The Lakers, Grok 4.6, AI Watermarks, Nuclear Jellyfish2026-08-13
Writing
All posts ↗Frequently asked questions
- Who is John Coogan?
- John Coogan co-founded TBPN, the daily tech talk show OpenAI bought in April 2026 in its first acquisition of a media company — terms were undisclosed, with the Financial Times putting the price in the low hundreds of millions. He had already co-founded two consumer companies: Soylent, where he was co-founder and CTO from 2013 to 2017 and helped scale the meal-replacement brand from a one-bedroom San Francisco apartment into a 50-person business doing nine figures of revenue, and Lucy, the tobacco-free nicotine brand he started in 2016 with Soylent colleagues David Renteln and Samy Hamdouche and took through Y Combinator. Between them he spent 2023 to 2025 as an entrepreneur in residence at Founders Fund and built a 450,000-subscriber YouTube channel telling technology stories, a format he turned into a live daily show with Jordi Hays in October 2024.
- Where does John Coogan work?
- John Coogan is Founder of John Coogan and Co-Founder & Host at TBPN and Founder at Lucy Goods, Inc and CTO at Soylent.
- What companies did John Coogan found?
- John Coogan founded John Coogan, Lucy Goods, Inc, Soylent, TBPN.
- What companies has John Coogan invested in?
- Investments tracked here include Lalabox, Lucy Goods, Inc, Players' Lounge.
- What has John Coogan written?
- John Coogan has 1 tracked post on johncoogan.com, including "The Metaverse: Is It Already Here?".
- What podcasts and interviews feature John Coogan?
- Tracked appearances include "Brainstorming +$1M Business Ideas With Soylent's Co-Founder | ft. John Coogan (#496)", "Some Math Problems, Scott Morton Breaks His Silence, Arsenal-2, Porsche Mission S", "Le Chonk, Buffet's Just Like You, TJ Parker Returns, Dylan Field Joins", and 9 more.
Founder mafias
Y Combinator mafia10,594
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
Founders Fund mafia19
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
Polytechnic School mafia6
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
Soylent mafia3
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
Lucy Goods, Inc mafia2
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
About this profile. Compiled from public sources — TBPN's own website, press coverage and public professional profiles — and summarised by Fundraising Fox; every fact is kept with where it came from. Spotted an error, or would rather not be listed? Email privacy@fundraisingfox.com · How we build profiles · Your rights