Latest news with #JasparCarmichael-Jack
Business Insider
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
I raised $25 million at 23. Here's my advice to other Gen Z entrepreneurs.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, the 23-year-old CEO of Artisan. It's been edited for length and clarity. When I was 7, I had a candy shop in my bedroom. It wasn't really a company, but we technically made revenue. When I was 13, I started buying and reselling domains. I didn't even apply to any universities. I knew in high school I wasn't going to go. I started an app for booking cleaners after finishing high school in London. It turned out to be a terrible, tarpit idea, but I learned a lot about how to build a company and how not to build a company. I founded Artisan when I was 21 At the beginning of 2023, I came up with Artisan. In January 2023, I spent a couple of months trying to find a cofounder and building the company. It was like a failed engine. I interviewed 100 cofounders, and didn't find anyone particularly good. In August 2023, I got another wave of motivation. It moved pretty fast then, and I got very lucky early on. Within the first month, we had a very basic prototype. We managed to raise $1.75 million just from a LinkedIn message. People are always like, "How did you raise money so early on?" That's complete luck. We got into Y Combinator a week after that. We launched V0 of Artisan in 2024, but the product barely worked. In June of last year, we launched V0.1, and that's when we started to see some growth. Our $12 million seed round was wrapped up in August, when I was 22. We raised a Series A that we closed in Q1 of this year at $25 million, which has enabled us to build out the team and hire a lot of really great talent and to double down on product again. We now have $6 million in annual recurring revenue. My advice for Gen Z tech entrepreneurs There's a relatively built-out playbook you can follow. First of all, educate yourself on the space and understand the type of company that you're building, how to build it, but then more broadly, what the startup ecosystem looks like. Do everything you can to be in the Silicon Valley startup ecosystem, rather than whatever town or city you're from. If I tried to raise that first round of funding in London, I probably would've gotten $100,000 or $200,000, a terrible valuation. We were able to raise a $15 million valuation with no products and just an idea because we went down the SF route, rather than the European route. You really need to have a strong founding team. I don't have a degree, and I've never had a job. Finding someone who can help with whatever you're weak at is super important. Reading high-quality books and watching Y Combinator videos helped me early on. "Zero to One" by Peter Thiel — he has some questionable opinions beyond the book, but that's a really good one. "Principles" by Ray Dalio and "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries are really strong. People also don't go all in. They'll dip their toe in. Especially when you're early on, you need to make the company your life. You should be working 80+ hours a week and moving to San Francisco. That's what I didn't do in January 2023, and it's the reason I had the false start. I was doing it for 30-40 hours a week, and it never got the momentum it needed. I did it differently in August. Raising funding is really difficult if you don't have experience. You have to put yourself in positions to get lucky. Meet the right people, network. Build a credible story and look like you're going to succeed. The most important thing is building a product that people want. If you do that, you don't even need to fundraise or have a great team. Here's how Gen Z founders are different from their predecessors There's more of an approach of doing whatever you need to do to get attention with younger founders. We were part of it with our controversial billboard campaign. Times Square billboard for AI company sparks backlash for calling for human workers to be replaced by AI. 'Stop Hiring Humans. AI employees are here.' — Oli London (@OliLondonTV) June 22, 2025 Young people are just more willing to do what they need to get eyeballs. The biggest AI companies now are foundation models. You couldn't really do that well as a Gen Zer, because you don't have the experience. I think we're going to see that shift pretty dramatically over the years, as product layer becomes more relevant and the foundation models mature. You've already seen it with Cursor. They're above $500 million ARR now. There's a bunch of other stories like that emerging. This is where younger founders will start to shine more, when the app layer pushes through.
Int'l Business Times
24-06-2025
- Business
- Int'l Business Times
'Stop Hiring Humans:' AI Ad Sparks Meltdown In Midtown Manhattan
Times Square recently turned into ground zero for a fiery debate over AI and the future of work, after a striking billboard reading "Stop Hiring Humans" appeared high above the city's bustling streets. The ad, unveiled by San Francisco-based startup Artisan AI, was part of a campaign to promote their voice-powered virtual employee Ava, and it has since gone viral online, drawing both applause and outrage in equal measure. The controversial campaign, according to Artisan's official blog, was a deliberate attempt to break away from what the company called "vanilla" messaging in the AI space. Earlier slogans like "Upskill with AI" reportedly failed to grab attention, prompting the team to go bold. CEO Jaspar Carmichael-Jack admitted the shock factor was intentional, stating that the aim was to start a conversation—not end one. "If we made the billboards as safe as everyone else's, nobody would care," he noted in the blog post. The reaction on the streets and online has been intense. SFGate reported the campaign featured follow-up slogans like "Artisans won't ask for paid time off" and "Artisan's Zoom cameras will never 'not be working' today," poking fun at human work habits. The tone has been described as "dystopian," but Artisan insists the purpose was never to threaten human workers. Instead, the company claims the goal is to eliminate the kind of repetitive tasks people don't enjoy, making human work more meaningful. Despite spending less than $50,000 on the billboard, Artisan's campaign has reportedly earned the company hundreds of millions of impressions across platforms like TikTok and Reddit. The New York Post reported that the stunt has even translated into business success, with Artisan claiming to have generated over $2 million in new annual revenue since the ad went live. Yet, the backlash hasn't been quiet either—critics have called the ad tone-deaf amid rising concerns over job losses due to automation. One user on Reddit summed up the mood bluntly: "Vandalism has never felt so justifiable." Artisan's messaging has been careful to underline that the startup is still hiring humans. In fact, they've highlighted ongoing job openings for software engineers and designers, even as Ava continues to evolve. As per Forbes, the company recently raised $25 million to expand its AI workforce model, aiming to integrate AI into day-to-day operations without eliminating human oversight. While reactions remain sharply divided, one thing is clear: Artisan AI has successfully inserted itself into the global conversation about where artificial intelligence is headed. Whether the world is ready for Ava or not, the message has landed—and people are paying attention.
New York Post
21-06-2025
- Business
- New York Post
‘Stop Hiring Humans' Viral AI billboard campaign sparks outrage in NYC
If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere — as long as you're not human. Dystopian billboards have popped up across Manhattan urging businesses to 'stop hiring human,' and some people are vowing to fight the rise of the machines. 'Rip them down' raged one observer on a Reddit post showing one of the billboards in Times Square. 'Vandalizing has never felt so right' wrote another. 5 An AI takeover? A massive Times Square billboard from Artisan AI urges businesses to 'Stop Hiring Humans' — part of a viral stunt that's turning Manhattan into a battleground over the future of work. On TikTok, a viral clip asked, 'Would you work with an AI coworker? Or better yet — would you trust one?' And on Instagram, one user wrote: 'This ad I saw in New York hit me like a truck … Entire industries are being reshaped. We can resist it, fear it… or face it head-on.' The resistance can breathe easy — the posters are part of a viral stunt from Artisan AI, a San Francisco startup that sells virtual 'employees' such as Ava, an AI-powered sales rep. 5 Meet Ava — your new AI sales rep. Artisan wants companies to interview its digital workers like this one, who's currently smiling from bus stops across Midtown. J.C. Rice The campaign launched in California last year and hit the Big Apple last month according to co-founder and CEO Jaspar Carmichael-Jack who told The Post the company spent less than $50,000 on placements across Manhattan, including in Times Square and along the High Line. But the real goal wasn't visibility — it was virality. 'The biggest play with the campaign is not actually the people who see it from the street,' Carmichael-Jack said. 'It's when people take pictures and repost it and share it. That's when we go viral.' 5 Artisan AI co-founders Sam Stallings, left, and Jaspar Carmichael-Jack faced a wave of backlash after the campaign launched — including thousands of death threats. The company estimates the NYC rollout has generated hundreds of millions of online impressions, outperforming its earlier campaigns in San Francisco and London. Artisan's original ads with softer slogans like 'Be more productive' and 'Upskill with AI' flopped, Carmichael-Jack said. But when the company leaned into bolder lines like 'Stop hiring humans,' 'Artisans won't complain about work-life balance' and 'Artisans won't come into work hungover,' the internet lit up. 5 A California billboard featured a deliberate typo — 'Stop Hirring Humans.' The viral moment was part of a broader campaign that has helped Artisan generate $5 million in revenue. 'It's designed to start conversation and stir public interest,' he said. 'When we say something controversial, everyone engages.' The campaign has caught the attention of labor advocates and marketing experts — some critical, others intrigued. 'Campaigns like this force us to confront our attitudes towards human workers,' said Ifeoma Ajunwa, a law professor at Emory University and author of 'The Quantified Worker.' 5 Artisan's virtual worker Ava may be the face of the campaign — but the company is still hiring real people, with more than two dozen open jobs posted online. Despite the message, Artisan is actively hiring humans — for now. More than two dozen job postings appear on the company's LinkedIn. 'We believe in hiring humans,' he said. 'Just hiring [them] for work that humans actually want to do.'
Metro
06-06-2025
- Business
- Metro
The real reason behind 'Stop Hiring Humans' ads appearing on the Tube
Staring mindlessly at adverts on the London Underground as your train whizzes from station to station is a common occurrence for commuters in the capital. But a new advertising campaign which recently arrived on the Tube is getting much more attention – possibly for the wrong reasons. The posters, found in London Bridge as well as other parts of the network, are suggesting in large letters that businesses should 'hire artisans, not humans', adding that 'the era of AI employees is here'. Slogans on other posters include 'Artisans don't spend half the year on holiday' or 'Artisans don't 'WFH' from Ibiza'. They're the brainchild of Artisan, an AI company which started in Silicon Valley in 2023 and has since received $25million (£18million) in funding. The business aims to build a company powered by AI employees called Artisans – but their advertising campaign has proved controversial, with its CEO facing death threats and hate mail. 'Stop hiring humans' posters and billboards first started popping up in San Francisco last December, coinciding with Artisan appearing at TechCrunch Disrupt, an annual tech conference. It quickly went viral, with an X post about its deliberately misspelt 'stop hirring humans' billboard being seen more than 230,000 times. Artisan CEO Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, who's originally from Surrey, said he and the company had received thousands of death threats since the campaign launched. After hosting an unofficial 'ask me anything' Q&A session on Reddit, he received a swathe of comments, very few of which were positive in any way. These included one simply saying 'Oh hi, f*** you', another asking 'Why doesn't the company replace you with AI?', a third saying 'How does it feel to be the poster child of a dystopic future?', and another asking 'You realise you're the villain, right?'. But last month, Jaspar doubled down on the 'rage-bait' marketing campaign, despite the thousands of threats he'd received. He has however since backtracked slightly on his previous message, saying the campaign was meant to grab attention rather than undermining human workers. 'We didn't expect people to get so mad,' Jaspar said in a blog post. 'The goal of the campaign was always to rage bait, but we never expected the level of backlash we ended up seeing. 'Looking forward, we'll likely tone down the messaging to be more in line with what we actually believe rather than just clickbaiting..! More Trending We don't actually want people to stop hiring humans – we're actively hiring across all roles, and I don't actually think AI is dystopian. 'The real goal for us is to automate the work that humans don't enjoy, and to make every job more human. 'Nobody wants to spend 8 hours a day researching people and writing outbound emails, so we built Ava to do it for them.' Metro has reached out to Jaspar Carmichael-Jack for comment Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: 'Stupid' Apple Pay prank plagues commuters on London Tube MORE: King Charles serenaded by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's wedding singers at SXSW London MORE: Fare dodger barges his way through barriers – and straight into arms of police
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Glade Brook Leads $25M Bet On Artisan, The AI Startup Backed By Y Combinator, HubSpot, And Sequoia To Replace Human Sales Teams
In a bold move to redefine the sales landscape, Artisan, a San Francisco-based startup, has secured a $25 million Series A funding round. The round was led by Glade Brook Capital, with participation from notable investors including Y Combinator, HubSpot Ventures (NYSE:HUBS), Oliver Jung, Day One Ventures, BOND, Soma Capital, and Sequoia Scout, according to Artisan. Don't Miss: 'Scrolling To UBI' — Deloitte's #1 fastest-growing software company allows users to earn money on their phones. Hasbro, MGM, and Skechers trust this AI marketing firm — . Founded in 2023 by Jaspar Carmichael-Jack and Sam Stallings, Artisan aims to revolutionize the workplace by replacing repetitive tasks with AI employees, known as 'Artisans.' According to the startup's page, their first product, Ava, is an AI Business Development Representative that automates the entire outbound sales process. Ava identifies leads, conducts research, crafts personalized messages, and schedules meetings across multiple channels, including email and LinkedIn. Ava is powered by a multi-agent system and a real-time context engine that monitors the web for buying signals such as job changes, new funding, or leadership moves. This allows her to engage prospects at the optimal time with tailored messages. According to Artisan, companies like SumUp have reported receiving eight to 15 positive replies per week from hard-to-reach small and medium-sized businesses without increasing their sales staff. Trending: BlackRock is calling 2025 the year of alternative assets. Ava's capabilities extend to managing email deliverability with a suite of tools designed to optimize every aspect of email campaigns. This includes email warm-up procedures and placement tests to ensure that emails reach their intended recipients. By automating these processes, Ava allows businesses to scale their outbound sales efforts effortlessly, freeing up valuable time and resources that can be redirected toward other important areas. Artisan's approach differs from traditional AI integrations by offering fully autonomous AI employees that take over specific job functions. The company believes that AI employees should be held to the same standards as human workers: they must perform their tasks effectively or not at all. This philosophy has driven the development of Ava from a supervised tool to an independent agent capable of managing complex outbound strategies and optimizing for pipeline impact. The recent funding will be used to accelerate research and development, expand the AI workforce, and enhance the Artisan Sales platform. The startup plans to introduce two new AI employees later this year: Aaron, an Inbound SDR Artisan who will qualify and route inbound leads, and Aria, a Meeting Assistant Artisan responsible for scheduling, reminders, and post-call provocative 'Stop Hiring Humans' marketing campaign has sparked conversations about the role of AI in the workplace. While the campaign was designed to attract attention, CEO Carmichael-Jack clarified in a blog that the company's goal is not to eliminate human workers but to free them from mundane tasks so they can focus on more creative and strategic work. With a growing team of 35 employees and plans to hire 22 more, Artisan is set to lead the charge in transforming the workplace through AI, according to TechCrunch. The company's approach and strong investor backing suggest a promising future for AI-driven automation in business operations. Read Next: Here's what Americans think you need to be considered wealthy. Inspired by Uber and Airbnb – Deloitte's fastest-growing software company is transforming 7 billion smartphones into income-generating assets – Image: Shutterstock Up Next: Transform your trading with Benzinga Edge's one-of-a-kind market trade ideas and tools. Click now to access unique insights that can set you ahead in today's competitive market. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? HUBSPOT (HUBS): Free Stock Analysis Report This article Glade Brook Leads $25M Bet On Artisan, The AI Startup Backed By Y Combinator, HubSpot, And Sequoia To Replace Human Sales Teams originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Sign in to access your portfolio
