{"id":"andrew-ambrosino","title":"Andrew Ambrosino","content":"**Andrew Ambrosino** is an American founder, design engineer, and product leader known for co-founding Catch, a fintech platform, and for his role at OpenAI, where he leads product and engineering for the [Codex](https://iq.wiki/wiki/codex) desktop application. With a background in software engineering and product design, his early career included roles at Microsoft, MITRE Corporation, and Upthere.\n\n## Early Career\n\nAndrew Ambrosino began his career as a Senior Design Engineer at MITRE Corporation from 2011 to 2015, a federally funded research and development centre. He also interned as a Software Engineer at Microsoft in 2013 during this period. [\\[1\\]](#cite-id-1fpmUUH2QNSrqpMT) [\\[2\\]](#cite-id-Zg8ebzeqTVXAg5T4)​\n\nIn 2014, Ambrosino further enhanced his design credentials by taking on a product design role at Upthere, a cloud storage company, where he was recognized as a Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) Design Fellow. During this period, he also obtained a FINRA/SEC Investment Advisor/Representative license (CRD: 6984304) and an Insurance Agent license from the Massachusetts Division of Insurance (NPN: 18946575), which were both achieved in connection to his subsequent work at Catch. [\\[2\\]](#cite-id-Zg8ebzeqTVXAg5T4)​\n\n## Catch (2016–2023)\n\nIn 2016, Ambrosino co-founded Catch, a fintech platform, with Kristen Anderson. The company was accepted into Y Combinator's Winter 2019 cohort (YC W19), marking a significant milestone in its development. Catch was designed to provide essential financial services such as health insurance, retirement savings plans, and tax withholding tools directly to freelancers, gig workers, and independent contractors who were not covered by employer-sponsored benefits. Ambrosino served as the CTO and CPO, overseeing product and technology development throughout the company's operations. Catch raised $6.1 million in seed funding in 2019, with investors including Khosla Ventures, NYCA Partners, Kindred Ventures, and Urban Innovation Fund. [\\[3\\]](#cite-id-JQKBPVn8ouwiqkUA) [\\[4\\]](#cite-id-b5qUbxBXCaFS2CBw)​\n\nUnder his leadership, Catch raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Crosslink Capital, bringing total funding to $18.1 million. This funding was aimed at supporting distribution partnerships and relocating the company’s headquarters from Boston to New York. Catch distinguished itself by becoming one of only three companies approved to sell benefits directly to consumers across 38 states on the federal marketplace. The company’s user base tripled over the year before raising its Series A, partly due to strategic partnerships with companies like DoorDash. [\\[3\\]](#cite-id-JQKBPVn8ouwiqkUA)​\n\nAmbrosino eventually ceded the position of CEO to Kristen Anderson and left Catch before joining Noyo. [\\[5\\]](#cite-id-da2goH75mTx6h8fV)​\n\n## Noyo (2023–2025)\n\nIn 2023, Ambrosino joined Noyo, a software company, initially as Head of Frontend Engineering and Product Design, and later assumed the role of Head of Product. At Noyo, he led a product team of approximately eight people and an engineering team of about twenty-five within a larger team of eighty. Ambrosino led the development and launch of several products such as BenefitsOS, AI Canvas, and Unified Issues. Under his leadership, Noyo doubled its customers and experienced a 50% growth in policies year-over-year on existing products. [\\[2\\]](#cite-id-Zg8ebzeqTVXAg5T4)​\n\nOne of his notable accomplishments at Noyo involved creating an AI team focused on leveraging generative AI within the product and developing initial AI prototypes. He also designed and developed a new customer-facing web application and introduced a new architecture to consolidate multiple generations of React codebases. [\\[2\\]](#cite-id-Zg8ebzeqTVXAg5T4)​\n\n## OpenAI (2025–present)\n\nAmbrosino joined OpenAI in 2025 as a Member of Technical Staff, where he currently leads the product and engineering efforts for the [Codex](https://iq.wiki/wiki/codex) desktop application. Released in February 2026, the [Codex](https://iq.wiki/wiki/codex) desktop app saw rapid adoption, growing sixfold from January 2026 to over 5 million weekly active users. [Codex](https://iq.wiki/wiki/codex) was originally a developer tool but has since garnered use by almost 100% of OpenAI's staff across non-engineering roles, demonstrating its versatility. [\\[6\\]](#cite-id-Zk6WqQ94ofLYXK10)​\n\nAt OpenAI, Ambrosino employs a \"zone defense\" team model, reducing traditional role boundaries by having designers write code and product managers own infrastructure. This structural change aims to maximize the integration and capability of the [Codex](https://iq.wiki/wiki/codex) app. He was featured in a 2026 episode of Lenny's Podcast, where he discussed the impact of AI on product work. [\\[7\\]](#cite-id-psSgbFTqSFUl3u4j)​","summary":"Andrew Ambrosino is an American founder, design engineer, and product leader who co-founded Catch and leads the Codex application at OpenAI. His career includes senior roles at MITRE, Microsoft, Upthere, and Noyo.","images":[{"id":"QmbCaDB5EN3zNu5WwSX7cYp8wq4yNpvJnJpNmVQqub5Ytr","type":"image/jpeg, image/png"}],"categories":[{"id":"people","title":"people"}],"tags":[{"id":"Founder"},{"id":"Developer"},{"id":"Speaker"}],"media":[{"id":"QmWWMyNDWTsx9gox7UPKqwV877FFGE8GvZ2d5XQD96Tgjh","type":"GALLERY","source":"IPFS_IMG"},{"id":"QmULU1QdQU7TXvb2pbWVK3kJ858Ly6rdWLDv8s4fYcShVH","type":"GALLERY","source":"IPFS_IMG"}],"metadata":[{"id":"website","value":"https://ambrosino.io/"},{"id":"linkedin_profile","value":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajambrosino"},{"id":"twitter_profile","value":"https://x.com/ajambrosino"},{"id":"references","value":"[{\"id\":\"1fpmUUH2QNSrqpMT\",\"url\":\"https://ambrosino.io/\",\"description\":\"Ambrosino's Site\",\"timestamp\":1783259288528},{\"id\":\"Zg8ebzeqTVXAg5T4\",\"url\":\"https://ambrosino.io/resume.pdf\",\"description\":\"Ambrosino's Resume\",\"timestamp\":1783259288528},{\"id\":\"JQKBPVn8ouwiqkUA\",\"url\":\"https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/30/catch-takes-hold-of-12m-to-provide-benefits-that-arent-tied-to-employers/\",\"description\":\"TechCrunch Series A\",\"timestamp\":1783259288528},{\"id\":\"b5qUbxBXCaFS2CBw\",\"url\":\"https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/21/catch-benefits/\",\"description\":\"TechCrunch Seed Round\",\"timestamp\":1783259288528},{\"id\":\"da2goH75mTx6h8fV\",\"url\":\"https://x.com/ajambrosino\",\"description\":\"Ambrosino's X\",\"timestamp\":1783259288528},{\"id\":\"Zk6WqQ94ofLYXK10\",\"url\":\"https://venturebeat.com/technology/openai-drastically-updates-codex-desktop-app-to-use-all-other-apps-on-your-computer-generate-images-preview-webpages/\",\"description\":\"VentureBeat on Codex updates\",\"timestamp\":1783259288528},{\"id\":\"psSgbFTqSFUl3u4j\",\"url\":\"https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/openai-codex-lead-on-the-new-shape\",\"description\":\"Lenny's Podcast\",\"timestamp\":1783259288528}]"},{"id":"commit-message","value":"\"Added new wiki page Andrew Ambrosino\""}],"events":[{"id":"e65aa150-8ffe-4164-a761-2b6d4c06b616","date":"2016-01-01","title":"Founded Catch","type":"CREATED","description":"Andrew Ambrosino co-founded Catch, a fintech platform providing portable benefits for independent workers.","link":null,"continent":null,"country":null},{"id":"cdc536ad-409e-457c-86ea-8136196b998b","date":"2021-07-01","title":"Catch Raises Series A","type":"DEFAULT","description":"Catch raised a $12 million Series A to expand distribution partnerships and relocate to New York.","link":"https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/30/catch-takes-hold-of-12m-to-provide-benefits-that-arent-tied-to-employers/","continent":null,"country":null},{"id":"a34caec5-9b2e-419c-860a-643bc75c27c0","date":"2023-01-01","title":"Joined Noyo","type":"DEFAULT","description":"Andrew Ambrosino joined Noyo, initially leading frontend engineering and later as Head of Product.","link":null,"continent":null,"country":null},{"id":"d6c591dd-21c5-4613-b712-14b20d28511e","date":"2025-01-01","title":"Joined OpenAI","type":"DEFAULT","description":"Andrew Ambrosino joined OpenAI as a Member of Technical Staff, leading development for the Codex app.","link":"https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/openai-codex-lead-on-the-new-shape","continent":null,"country":null}],"user":{"id":"0x8af7a19a26d8fbc48defb35aefb15ec8c407f889"},"author":{"id":"0x8af7a19a26d8fbc48defb35aefb15ec8c407f889"},"operator":{"id":"0x04e4a72e18b46EC55Ba1361CEFcEF0404b520f47"},"language":"en","version":1,"linkedWikis":{"blockchains":[],"founders":[],"speakers":[]}}