Artisan is recognized for their bold “Stop Hiring Humans” campaign, but every founder needs the right team to scale. The fast-growing AI startup is developing AI employees for sales outbound and customer engagement. This week on Build Mode, Isabelle Johannessen spoke with Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, Artisan’s co-founder and CEO, about the early days of growing their team and the hiring mistakes that could have halted their progress before they began.
Hiring the wrong people or filling incorrect positions are errors that can rapidly multiply. They waste time, lower morale, and often lead to an execution delay that can be deadly for a startup starting to scale.
“I’ve made a lot of hiring mistakes — like, a lot within every single role,” said Carmichael-Jack. “We’ve probably hired over 100 people to have the 40 people that we have now.” Each mistake provided a valuable lesson that the founding team applied moving forward.
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Overhiring
Maintaining alignment and focus is tougher with a team of 50 compared to a team of 10. “I thought that we would scale faster if I hired all these roles and built this huge team, but it actually makes it more difficult to scale,” said Carmichael-Jack.
In the early stages of a startup, no team member should have downtime. Hiring should be reserved for situations where there’s too much work for the current team.
Logo shopping
A prestigious résumé doesn’t always indicate a candidate ready to thrive in a startup. The skills to succeed in well-resourced teams at large companies don’t always align with those needed in a startup environment. An applicant