Unique Research · Company · November 13, 2024
AI digital-worker company 11x announced Nov 12 a $50M Series B led by a16z — just two months after Benchmark-led $24M Series A (Sept). Valuation jumped to $350M from ~$90M. Multiple outlets: $10M ARR.
Core: AI “digital workers” replacing traditional sales motions via autonomous GTM workflows. Stars: Alice — first AI SDR; automates campaigns, finds prospects, personalized outreach; response rates ~3× traditional SDRs. Jordan — 24/7 multilingual phone rep (30+ languages); response time ~10× faster. Alice 2.0 (agentic) learning/improving autonomously soon. B round funds more agents; U.S. growth + team; acquired healthcare AI Opkit (founders join Alice 2.0).
CEO Hasan Sukkar: “11x” = commitment to transformative leaps. Alice and Jordan don’t assist sales teams — they close the revenue loop as autonomous AI employees.
Origin (compiled from Kyle Poyar interview)
Vision: digital workers like real employees — always on, full roles not mere tools. Early idea: Upwork-like marketplace for virtual workers; then focused on vertical SDR → Alice. Inspiration: first job copy-pasting spreadsheets — “brutally repetitive.” Idea Q3 2022; SDR focus Q1 2023; 7–8 months sitting beside SDRs, studying top 5% vs. average. Few deep design partners, not shallow breadth; six person product-centric team; “high-risk, technically fearless” iteration. Branding: name Alice, face, job — task-based pricing (not credits) to feel human.
Growth engines
1. Product as channel. Public launch Aug 2023; six months later >$2M ARR driven by Alice. Alice automates outbound email/LinkedIn — hunts companies hiring SDRs worldwide, messages as AI: “I’m AI; I can do this job,” personalized to recent funding or stale job posts. Only clear buyers (willing to hire SDRs). 70–80 high-quality meetings/week; founder-led sales until >$700k ARR; first two AEs (early Feb) booked >$200k ARR month one off Alice demand. Sukkar rejects high-volume templated spray — Google/Yahoo harden against it; future is fewer, higher-quality, scalable personalized touches. 1,000+ inbound demo requests post-launch.
2. Sell against hiring budget, not just software. End-to-end autopilot-first ROI: ~5× cheaper than hiring an SDR (salary, licenses, management, overhead); ~2× better than average SDR; faster deploy, less overhead, more scalable. “Automate small tasks → whole workflows — higher value, customers pay more.” Pricing: task-based (identify → research → outreach → book) — ~90% of customers; testing outcome-based (cf. Intercom AI bots). SQL success metric; human-sourced opps often >$1,000 each.
3. Speed + tech edge. End-to-end breadth is a risk — Sukkar wants core tech advantage: agents that gather info and write personalized content in a self-improving loop (even build own web scrapers vs. third-party intent). “Speed compounds… we like to operate 5–10× what most call normal.” Hire for pace; “Speed beats gravity — ultimately our only advantage.”
Next / advice
Bet on automation: “a unicorn built by a three-person team.” Headcount per $1M ARR falling. Advice: stay close to customers early; solve real end-to-end problems; go deep vertical; take technical risk when it buys edge; build culture for pace, intensity, ambition from day one.
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