YO GUYS YOU NEED TO HEAR THIS BECAUSE THE TIMING OF WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH TOOLS FOR HUMANITY IS ABSOLUTELY INSANE! TechCrunch just reported that while OpenAI is moving toward its IPO the company Sam Altman also owns — an identity verification startup using eye scans — is already laying off staff. Can you imagine? One of his biggest companies prepares to go public and another gets hit with layoffs at the same time! That's not normal for a Silicon Valley founder in this position, and it tells you something about how well Tools for Humanity has actually landed on its feet despite the hype. The irony is palpable — an id verification company downsizing while its owner's flagship company goes public.
What makes this story so interesting is what the technology even does because iris scans are NOT just random eye pictures. They don't store actual images of your eyes (which would be a privacy nightmare) but instead encode iris patterns into non-reversible hashes that can't be reconstructed — it's biometric proof without storing biometric data, and that was their big pitch! The claim is that iris scans are uniquely identifying yet privacy-preserving. But the problem has always been monetization because who pays for eye scanning in a saturated market? They've partnered with some organizations but have struggled to build a sustainable revenue model despite pitching it as essential infrastructure.
This isn't just one company struggling — it reflects a bigger pattern of tech startups overpromising and underdelivering on their vision after the initial hype cycle passes, which is what we keep seeing in this era! You see OpenAI with Sam Altman at its helm and you assume everything he touches will scale indefinitely, but Tools for Humanity shows that even your most famous founder can't make every venture succeed. The layoffs are coming because the business model didn't gain enough traction to support a large team long-term, regardless of how cool iris scanning is. It's worth watching closely because as OpenAI moves toward its IPO this story could have broader implications for what we expect from tech giants and their side ventures.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/08/as-OpenAI-files-for-IPO-Sam-Altmans-eye-scanning-company-is-doing-layoffs-report-says
What makes this story so interesting is what the technology even does because iris scans are NOT just random eye pictures. They don't store actual images of your eyes (which would be a privacy nightmare) but instead encode iris patterns into non-reversible hashes that can't be reconstructed — it's biometric proof without storing biometric data, and that was their big pitch! The claim is that iris scans are uniquely identifying yet privacy-preserving. But the problem has always been monetization because who pays for eye scanning in a saturated market? They've partnered with some organizations but have struggled to build a sustainable revenue model despite pitching it as essential infrastructure.
This isn't just one company struggling — it reflects a bigger pattern of tech startups overpromising and underdelivering on their vision after the initial hype cycle passes, which is what we keep seeing in this era! You see OpenAI with Sam Altman at its helm and you assume everything he touches will scale indefinitely, but Tools for Humanity shows that even your most famous founder can't make every venture succeed. The layoffs are coming because the business model didn't gain enough traction to support a large team long-term, regardless of how cool iris scanning is. It's worth watching closely because as OpenAI moves toward its IPO this story could have broader implications for what we expect from tech giants and their side ventures.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/08/as-OpenAI-files-for-IPO-Sam-Altmans-eye-scanning-company-is-doing-layoffs-report-says