In the fast-paced world of AI sales, Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, a 24-year-old entrepreneur, is making waves with his startup, Artisan. As the founder and CEO, he’s not just facing challenges but also celebrating some impressive wins. Recently, Artisan raised a whopping $25 million in Series A funding. This round was led by Glade Brook Capital, with big names like Y Combinator, Day One Ventures, and HubSpot Ventures joining in.
Artisan has quickly become a talking point in the AI sales development representative (AI SDR) field, thanks to its eye-catching ‘Stop Hiring Humans’ campaign. This bold marketing move has stirred up quite a conversation. Jaspar even played along with the theme by jokingly announcing an AI CEO on April Fool’s Day.
But don’t be fooled by the campaign’s message. Jaspar makes it clear that human labor becomes even more valuable when paired with AI. Right now, Artisan employs 35 people and is looking to add 22 more, including a new CTO, Ming Li.
One of the hurdles Artisan faces is customer retention, a common challenge in the industry. Early AI SDR products, including Artisan’s, often struggled with low response rates and high churn due to flawed AI outputs. However, Artisan says they’ve made significant strides with their flagship product, Ava, which now has a lower hallucination rate and is used by 250 companies, generating $5 million in annual recurring revenue.
Looking ahead, Artisan is expanding its offerings. They’re launching Aaron, an inbound message handler, and Aria, a meeting manager assistant, both expected by the end of 2025.
Jaspar understands that not every company benefits equally from AI SDR solutions. This realization has led Artisan to refine how they target clients. They’ve developed a proprietary database and are testing a flexible ‘success-based pricing’ model with Paid.ai. Jaspar believes that products should only be sold to those who truly gain value from them.
