The official OpenAI Grove website does say "The program runs Monday, October 20th, 2025 to Friday, November 21st, 2025." so by this point, the finalization of the cohort has been long done.

I applied and had the same experience you did—no confirmation and didn’t hear back.

If I recall correctly, it was explicit somewhere that they would only contact you if you were accepted. With the volume of applications they likely got, I give them some grace—I think it’s great they have a program like that at all.

I had a 30 minute intro call and got a rejection a few days later. It was VERY timely (Sep 21 email, Sep 23 meeting, Sep 26 rejection).

We both weren't sure if my project was a good fit for the program. It was still a positive experience, and they were nice enough to offer me an intro to a more relevant team within OpenAI.

I couldn't quite figure out the goal of Grove. The line about "pre-idea" individuals, and of course the referral offer, made me feel that it's more of a hiring pipeline and not a traditional incubator. But we'll see when they announce the cohort.