Beyond the Headlines: How Lachy Groom Became One of Silicon Valley's Most Impressive Operators—And Why Sam Altman Is Just a Footnote

When a $11 million cryptocurrency heist made headlines in San Francisco, the story centered on an unexpected victim: Lachy Groom, a 31-year-old Australian entrepreneur whose name suddenly flooded the media. But here’s the thing—the robbery isn’t his story. His real narrative is far more compelling: a teenager from Perth who skipped university, became Stripe’s 30th employee, built a legendary investment track record, and now co-founded an AI robotics startup valued at $5.6 billion.

Yes, people love to reduce him to “Sam Altman’s ex-boyfriend.” But that’s like calling Steve Jobs “the guy who worked at Atari.” Miss the point entirely.

The Origin Story: A Perth Kid Who Saw Through the Hype

Here’s the truth about Lachy Groom: he was never supposed to leave Australia. But at 17, something clicked. He realized his hometown’s startup scene couldn’t compete with what was happening in San Francisco, and more crucially—he understood a brutal business principle that most people never grasp: “US valuations are dramatically higher.”

So this teenager made a decision that changed everything: abandon the traditional education track and move to the epicenter of tech.

Start the clock at age 10. That’s when his grandfather introduced him to HTML and CSS. By his early teens, Lachy wasn’t just coding—he was building businesses. Between ages 13 and 17, he founded and exited three companies: PSDtoWP (WordPress design service), PAGGStack.com (development platform), and iPadCaseFinder.com (marketplace). His fourth venture, Cardnap, created a system for users to hunt and trade discounted gift cards.

His father, Geoff Groom, described him accurately: Lachy was always the kid finding angles. Dog walking gigs. Lemonade stands. Every opportunity was a business experiment.

But Australia had a ceiling. San Francisco had endless sky.

The Stripe Era: Seven Years Inside the Silicon Valley Machine

When Lachy Groom joined Stripe in 2012, the company was still in its ascent phase. Few understood what it would become. He didn’t enter as a founder—he was employee #30. And that position gave him something priceless: a front-row seat to how you scale a B2B SaaS powerhouse from zero to $100 billion.

His journey through Stripe (2012-2018) wasn’t a traditional career. It was an accelerated education:

• Started in growth, then moved into expanding global operations across Singapore, Hong Kong, and New Zealand
• Eventually took the reins of Stripe’s card issuing division
• Built operational expertise that most MBAs never touch

By the time he left, Lachy had acquired three irreplaceable assets: financial freedom, deep SaaS scaling knowledge, and admission into what Silicon Valley insiders call “the Stripe Mafia”—a network of alumni who now dominate the venture capital landscape. Membership in this circle? It’s like being handed the keys to the kingdom.

The Solo Investor Pivot: Becoming the “Sniper” of Startup Investing

In 2018, Lachy Groom made his boldest move yet: leave the comfortable executive path and bet entirely on himself as a solo capitalist. Most angel investors cast wide nets—write small checks to 100 companies, hope some stick. Lachy operates like a sniper: deep research, targeted bets, and when confident, six-figure commitments ($100K-$500K checks) made fast.

His investment thesis was deceptively simple: back tools that users adopt organically, not software they’re forced to use. Focus on bottom-up adoption models, real workflow problems, solutions that reshape how people work.

The results? Staggering. 204 investments across 122 companies. Here’s where his capital landed:

Figma (2018 seed round, $94M valuation then): When Figma went public in July 2025, it opened at a $67.6 billion market cap on day one. Even at its current $17.5 billion valuation, Lachy’s initial seed bet is worth roughly 185x his investment.

Notion (2019 Series A, $800M valuation): He led the round. Two years later, the company hit $10 billion. Current annualized revenue exceeds $500 million.

Ramp (fintech): Early seed participation in the cross-border payments platform.

Lattice (HR tech): Invested while they were still testing product-market fit (2016-2017 timeframe).

See the pattern? He wasn’t chasing hype. He was identifying tools that would become indispensable to how work gets done.

Physical Intelligence: Lachy’s Next Gamble on the “Brain” for Robots

By 2024, Lachy had proved himself in software. His next question: what happens when AI merges with hardware?

The answer led him to co-found Physical Intelligence in March 2024—a robotics company building universal foundation models to give robots genuine intelligence. His co-founders read like an all-star roster:

• Karol Hausman: Google DeepMind researcher, Stanford adjunct professor
• Chelsea Finn: Google Brain alumni, Stanford assistant professor (Computer Science & EE)
• Adnan Esmail: Tesla engineer (4 years), chief architect at defense tech firm Anduril Industries
• Brian Ichter: Google DeepMind and Google Brain research scientist

The mission: develop software that transforms robots from bolt-tightening machines into adaptive, reasoning agents capable of handling complex, human-like environments.

Capital markets erupted. In one month (seed round): $70 million led by Thrive Capital, with participation from Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, OpenAI, and Sequoia Capital.

Seven months later (November 2024): $400 million Series A, led by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Thrive Capital, and Lux Capital.

One week ago (November 21): $600 million Series B, led by Alphabet’s CapitalG, bringing the company’s valuation to $5.6 billion. Jeff Bezos returned as a participant.

This isn’t just funding—it’s validation from the most sophisticated capital allocators on the planet.

The Real Story Isn’t the Robbery

So yes, a $11 million heist happened at a San Francisco mansion. Yes, the homeowner happened to be connected to Sam Altman’s past. The media had its angle.

But that’s not Lachy Groom’s story.

His story is a Perth teenager who understood scale, joined one of the most important infrastructure companies ever built, graduated into a network of the world’s best operators, deployed capital with surgical precision into companies that became $10B+ valuations, and is now betting on the frontier where physical robotics meets artificial intelligence.

The “Altman connection”? That’s just trivia. The real narrative is a 31-year-old proving that you don’t need a degree, a big fund, or someone else’s halo to reshape industries. You just need clarity, timing, and the guts to move to where the opportunity actually is.