Alex Atallah might be the luckiest founder of all time.

He co-founded OpenSea in 2017 and helped build the infrastructure behind the NFT boom. The company reached a $13.3 billion valuation. Atallah left his day-to-day role in July 2022, just as the market began to cool.

Then he co-founded OpenRouter as generative AI took off. One API for hundreds of models, charging roughly 5% on the AI spend routed through it.

Built around that fee, OpenRouter raised more than $150 million in venture funding, including a $113 million Series B at a $1.3 billion valuation in May.

Atallah described it as “an AI equivalent of Stripe.”

Now Stripe has reportedly agreed to acquire OpenRouter for more than $7 billion.

And one day later, Straitly launches the same service with one key difference: 0% markup. The fee model at the heart of OpenRouter was priced to zero by a new competitor one day after the deal was reported.

Atallah sold the toll booth just as someone made the toll free.

Twice now, he has left the party at almost exactly the right moment.