From Product to Platform: What Startup CEOs Can Learn from OpenAI’s Enterprise Shift

Hi Transformers,

A year ago, OpenAI was the quintessential product company. ChatGPT was its crown jewel, and usage growth was the headline.

But this week, the story changed.

OpenAI announced deep enterprise partnerships with Spotify, Zillow, and Mattel, unveiling a new growth play focused on embedding itself inside other companies’ ecosystems.

The company is now positioning itself as the platform layer powering transformation, not just the app that captures attention.

This may look like just another partnership update. But it’s far more strategic than that.
It signals a decisive shift from product-led to platform-led growth, and for startup CEOs, it’s a masterclass in leverage.

Here’s what OpenAI’s latest move teaches startup CEOs and CROs about transformational selling:

1. Sell Capabilities, Not Products

When you’re early, you sell what your product does. When you’re transformational, you sell what your customer becomes with you.

OpenAI isn’t saying, “Use GPT-5.” It’s saying, “Here’s how your business model evolves when AI becomes part of your workflow.”

In Lead With Transformation (Chapter 6: “Define the Transformational Opportunity”), I call this reframing your offer with the 3 layers of impact, something that redefines the customer’s business.

2. Create Embedded Value, Not Dependency
Great platforms don’t lock customers in. They make themselves indispensable.
Spotify isn’t using OpenAI because it has to; it’s using it because it makes content more discoverable and sticky for users.

Make your customers look better in front of their customers. That’s how you become a platform, not a vendor.

In Chapter 9 of my book, “Rally Champions and Partners to Win,” I emphasize that platforms grow through ecosystems.

3. Shift From Transactions to Transformation

This is about outcome velocity.
When you tie your success to your customer’s growth metrics (efficiency, new markets, retention), you elevate the relationship to a partnership.

Ask yourself: “If my customer doubled in size tomorrow, would they still need me, or would they outgrow me?”

Platforms don’t get outgrown. They scale with the customer’s ambition.

In Chapter 8, “Command the Narrative to Lead the Deal,” I outline exactly how to elevate your pitch from tactical to transformational outcomes.

Every founder I talk to wants scale. But most chase it the wrong way: through more customers, not more leverage.

OpenAI is showing the opposite.

By integrating its capabilities directly into enterprise workflows, from Spotify’s content discovery to Mattel’s design process, it’s trading breadth for depth, ownership for embeddedness.

That’s the next evolution of transformation:
Not selling features to enterprises, but becoming part of how they create value.

Audit your last five customer wins.
Are you selling tools, or are you embedding capabilities?
If it’s the former, start reimagining how your product could become a platform inside your customer’s ecosystem.

Because in the coming decade…

Products compete. Platforms compound.

I hope you found this edition valuable. Hit reply and tell me what you’d like to see next.

—Ram Himmatraopet

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📖 My new book Lead With Transformation launches October 14, 2025.