This year has been a challenging yet exhilarating journey for 23-year-old Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, the founder and CEO of Artisan, a startup specializing in AI-driven sales agents. The company recently secured a significant $25 million in Series A funding, led by Glade Brook Capital, with participation from Y Combinator, Day One Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, and others. Just a year prior, Artisan had already established itself as a top contender in the winter 2024 Y Combinator cohort, successfully raising $12 million in one of the largest funding rounds at that time.
Carmichael-Jack and his co-founder, 30-year-old Sam Stallings, have navigated the ups and downs of early-stage startup life, especially in the rapidly evolving field of AI sales development representatives. Artisan gained notable attention for its provocative “Stop Hiring Humans” marketing campaign, which generated a wide array of reactions, including media coverage and even threats. Carmichael-Jack humorously faced backlash by announcing his “resignation” as a joke on April Fool’s Day, reinforcing the campaign’s intended attention-grabbing nature.
He clarified that he does not believe AI will replace humans; rather, AI enhances human roles in the workforce. One of the significant challenges Artisan has faced is customer retention. Although AI sales agents present an attractive solution for sales tasks like cold-emailing, many early products, including Artisan’s original offering, struggled with effectiveness.
Carmichael-Jack acknowledged that early iterations had low response rates and high churn. However, following collaboration with model provider Anthropic and refining their product, Artisan claims to have significantly improved reliability. The flagship product, Ava, now boasts a low rate of “hallucination” in email responses and has been embraced by 250 companies, generating $5 million in annual recurring revenue.
Despite its successes, Carmichael-Jack learned the hard way that not all companies are suited for AI sales agents. Artisan has identified specific industries that do not align with their offerings and adjusts its customer criteria accordingly. The company emphasizes careful qualification to ensure that clients are set up for success.
As it expands its offerings with new AI products like Aaron and Aria, Artisan aims to sustain its growth while providing real value to customers.