Artisan AI

AI Artisan HQ is pioneering a future where human potential is amplified by AI collaborators that seamlessly handle repetitive business tasks, enabling people to focus on meaningful, creative work. We believe the next era of work hinges on building intelligent, intuitive AI artisans that partner with humans rather than replace them.

Through advanced AI technologies and autonomous agents like our AI Business Development Representative Ava, we are revolutionizing outbound sales and business automation. Our vision extends beyond sales automation to redefining multiple industries, empowering organizations to unlock new efficiencies and human creativity.

We are driven to reshape how work gets done by forging a future where AI collaborators are trusted partners—simplifying complexity, expanding human capacity, and inspiring the transformation of the workforce into an enriched ecosystem of innovation and fulfillment.

We've been watching Artisan AI since they emerged from Y Combinator's Winter 2024 cohort, and honestly? They've managed to turn what could be another boring "AI sales tool" into something that actually feels different. Founded by Jaspar Carmichael-Jack and Sam Stallings in San Francisco, this isn't your typical SaaS startup trying to slap AI onto existing workflows.

Meet Ava, Your New Sales Teammate

The star of the show is Ava, their AI Business Development Representative who handles the grunt work of outbound sales. We're talking lead research, personalized outreach, follow-ups — the whole nine yards. What caught our attention isn't just that Ava can do these tasks, but that she operates with genuine autonomy.

By April 2024, they rolled out version two that lets AI agents send communications without waiting for human approval. That's either brilliant or terrifying, depending on your perspective. We lean toward brilliant, especially when you consider they've hit $5 million in annual recurring revenue by early 2025.

The Provocative Marketing That Actually Works

Here's where Artisan AI gets interesting from a positioning standpoint. Their "Stop Hiring Humans" campaign in December 2024 was pure marketing genius — controversial enough to spark conversation, but backed by a product that can actually deliver. They followed up with an April 2025 stunt about replacing their CEO with AI.

Sure, it's provocative, but it's also authentic to their vision. They're not tiptoeing around the automation conversation; they're leaning into it while building tools that genuinely make work more strategic rather than just replacing people wholesale.

Why We Think They're Onto Something

The funding trajectory tells a compelling story: $2.3 million pre-seed, $11.5 million seed, and a $25 million Series A by April 2025. Investors like Y Combinator and HubSpot Ventures don't typically throw money at flashy demos — they invest in traction.

What we find most promising is their expansion vision beyond sales. They're building toward AI collaborators across recruiting, customer success, and other business functions. With Ming Li joining as CTO (bringing experience from Deel, Rippling, and TikTok), they've got the technical chops to pull it off.

Artisan AI feels like one of those rare startups that's both riding the AI wave and actually building something substantive underneath the hype. For B2B teams drowning in repetitive tasks, they might just be the lifeline worth trying.