An unfiltered conversation with Alex Atallah, CEO of OpenRouter

Listen to a conversation with Alex Atallah, the CEO of OpenRouter, along with Nolan Fortman and Logan Kilpatrick. The conversation covers:

The start of OpenRouter
Open vs Closed models
Why AI usage is the ultimate metric for us
How to compare different models in production
How to rank models

And much more! Check out Around the Prompt on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/around-the-prompt/id…

We recorded this episode a few months ago and for various reasons (mostly Nolan and Logan being too busy shipping stuff to work on this show), have waited to release it. Alex's point of view is timeless and actually speaks to his point of view that everything talked about is even more relevant today now.


00:00 Inspiration for OpenRouter
05:40 Who uses OpenRouter
10:53 Why is model routing hard
19:15 AI vs Crypto Industries
32:46 Where does OpenRouter go next?
38:08 AI and Crypto Hype
44:06 2025 predictions

Note: This video reflects the personal views of Logan and Nolan and does not represent the views of their employers (past, present, or future).