OpenRouter should sell now because its core function — routing between models — is commoditizing fast and becoming an embedded feature in many platforms.
Jason and Rory argue that OpenRouter should sell at the current moment because model-routing is becoming a commoditized feature that competing platforms (Databricks, Ramp, etc.) are building themselves, and the acquisition window will close once commoditization is fully realized. ✦ AI generated
Jason · 20VC · 2026-07-23 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 20:00
“How is it a great time for open router to sell?”
sometimes if you're early you can gain a lot of traction in something that becomes somewhat commoditized it's just it's just the way it goes and if you and the perfect outcome is to sell the moment it becomes commoditized but before everyone fully realizes it. That's when they'll give you the money, but that's before the value decrease rather than increase. And it my gut is it might be. It might be now.
verbatim transcript · starts at 20:00
20:01How >> is it a great time for open router to sell? I think it's I think I think them leaking the story was very was very savvy. >> Why is it a great time for them to sell Jason? >> Because the market's in flux. Everyone's figured out they need this. Open router like a lot of folks was was was was early and benefited from it and deserves
20:19it. Right. This is a repeat founding team that saw that there would be value to having a a fairly heterogeneous mix of models that when we started this pod probably made no sense at some level. It probably seemed too nerdy and too niche and too cool cat developer who who's going to need like yeah sure there's a little it's cool but uh you know guys like Rory and me we're going to stick to
20:42the big guns, right? and uh it everything broke well for them but it's still a niche product that more and more people are going to build variants of themselves and is this the plumbing they will pick will you know if you're on a lot of plat if you're on adjacent platforms if you're using data bricks gateway they'll they have their own harness they'll figure this out for you
21:02there will I don't know whether ramps competitor even makes sense like I but um it's my point is it's something that's going to become embedded in so many vendors that if I could sell for a lofty multiple of my last round. I I I might I might check out a five or six billion. Like it it just just it's just just because the next you you you've
21:22achieved a certain amount of victory in a market that's going through radical change and becoming part of everything. I might I I might I might I might take the offer. >> Jason is answering the question, why is it a good time to sell? And you know, frankly, as you you yourself, Jason, have said, you know, and I say it too, the private market liquidity window opens so rarely
21:44that it's always a good idea to pay attention when it does. So, I think it's easy to understand that side of it. I actually think the interesting side of the discussion is the other side. Why would someone want to buy, right? And I think when I saw that article, I was like, yeah, that makes sense. If you think about the last conversation we had, you know, what's in the zeitgeist
22:03right now, it's this whole idea of can I get escape model dependency, manage my costs, have a whole load of alternatives easily available to me, right? If I'm someone like who makes my money as a hyperscaler hosting, especially someone that doesn't have their own just one in-house model they're pushing like Gemini. If I'm maybe Amazon in particular who's made a business of saying I'm going to support all the
22:28models. If you had maybe even Microsoft now that the divorce is coming true from open AI, you know, maybe this would be a great product to own if I was a cloud hyperscaler. So I will admit I had that moment of because you often see and it's step out. You often see this in in this kind of market. You have these businesses where intellectually over a 10-year period, you can say, "Hey,