The archive · AI & Models · Marketing decision · 2022–2026
Artisan's 'Stop Hiring Humans' billboards bet outrage would sell AI SDRs
AI-SDR startup Artisan manufactured global outrage with 'Stop Hiring Humans' billboards; death threats and worldwide coverage followed, then a $25M Series A.
Artisan
What the business is
Artisan builds AI sales agents — led by Ava, an AI SDR — that research prospects and write outbound sales emails for B2B companies, with plans to expand into more 'AI employee' roles.
Starting capital：$12M raised in September 2024 after Y Combinator's winter 2024 class; $25M Series A led by Glade Brook Capital (April 2025).
How it started
Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, a 23-year-old from Surrey with a long history of side hustles, came up with the idea for AI 'employees' in Tulum after ChatGPT launched. He joined Y Combinator's winter 2024 class with co-founder Sam Stallings, raised $12M in September 2024, and launched Ava, an AI sales development representative that writes cold outreach for B2B companies.
What happened
To break out of a crowded AI SDR market, Artisan ran a deliberately trollish campaign. A TechCrunch Disrupt booth and a Highway 101 billboard reading 'Stop Hiring Humans' drew almost nothing, so the team anonymously mocked its own ads on Reddit, then blitzed 50 bus shelters across San Francisco. The backlash arrived: thousands of death threats, coverage everywhere, and Carmichael-Jack fleeing the city for Miami and London. Amid the hate, marketing managers and investors started calling; within months Artisan closed a $25M Series A led by Glade Brook Capital. By April 2025 it reported 250 customers, $5M ARR, and 35 human employees — hiring 22 more.
How it ended up
Still running and expanding: after Ava came planned agents Aaron (inbound), Aria (meetings) and Blake (recruiting), and the founder says the slogan was 'mostly just for attention' — he does not actually believe AI replaces people.
Background
Artisan is a San Francisco startup building AI 'employees', led by Ava, an AI sales development representative that writes outbound sales emails for B2B companies. Founder Jaspar Carmichael-Jack conceived the company after ChatGPT launched, joined Y Combinator's winter 2024 class with co-founder Sam Stallings, raised $12M in September 2024, and entered one of the most crowded and hyped markets of the moment: AI SDRs.
To get noticed, Artisan bet on manufactured outrage. Its 'Stop Hiring Humans' slogan — attached to the face of Ava — first ran on a TechCrunch Disrupt booth and a Highway 101 billboard, with almost no pickup. The team then anonymously mocked its own campaign on Reddit, and finally blitzed 50 bus shelters across San Francisco. That broke through: thousands of death threats piled up on social media, Carmichael-Jack fled the city, and the campaign generated countless articles, posts and comments.
The controversy converted directly into business. Marketing managers at other startups reached out admiringly, investors started calling, and within months Artisan closed a $25M Series A led by Glade Brook Capital with Y Combinator, Day One Ventures and HubSpot Ventures participating. By April 2025 the company reported 250 customer companies and $5M in annual recurring revenue — while employing 35 humans and hiring 22 more, a detail its critics enjoyed pointing out.
The company is candid that the slogan was a bet on attention, not a statement of belief: Carmichael-Jack told TechCrunch he does not think AI replaces people, calling the billboards 'mostly just for attention.' The campaign remains one of the most cited examples of engineered virality in the AI startup wave.
What has to be true
- Artisan needed brand awareness in a market full of lookalike AI SDR products, and a deliberately offensive slogan was cheaper than the ad spend it could not afford.
- Each escalation — booth, billboard, Reddit, 50 bus shelters — was driven by the previous one failing, until the 50-shelter blitz crossed the threshold into genuine outrage.
- The death threats and backlash became coverage, and coverage became inbound investor and customer interest, closing the $25M Series A.
- The founder's public honesty that the slogan was 'mostly just for attention' kept the story alive and defused much of the criticism.
What can be applied
Manufactured outrage is a cheap distribution channel — but only if the company survives the backlash it deliberately starts and converts the attention into sales.
Aftermath
As of September 2026 Artisan remains an operating AI-agent company; as of its April 2025 raise it reported 250 customers and $5M ARR and was expanding beyond Ava into inbound, meeting and recruiting agents (Aaron, Aria, Blake). The campaign is widely cited as a case of engineered virality, and the company's own hiring — 35 humans plus 22 open roles in April 2025 — visibly contradicted its slogan.
Sources
- Artisan, the 'stop hiring humans' AI agent startup, raises $25M — and is still hiring humans
- Meet the humans behind the 'stop hiring humans' ad campaign
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