Listen Labs raises $69M after viral billboard hiring stunt to scale AI customer interviews
Listen Labs, a startup building AI-powered customer interviews, raised $69 million in Series B funding led by Ribbit Capital. Founder Alfred Wahlforss drew attention with a $5,000 San Francisco billboard that hid a coding challenge based on the Berlin nightclub Berghain. The round values the company at $500 million and brings total capital to $100 million.
Key Takeaways
- Alfred Wahlforss was running out of options.
His startup, Listen Labs , needed to hire over 100 engineers, but competing against Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million offers seemed impossible.
- "When you obsess over customers, everything else follows," Wahlforss said in an interview with VentureBeat.
"Teams that use Listen bring the customer into every decision, from marketing to product, and when the customer is delighted, everyone is."
- You can ask follow up questions.
You can kind of double check if they actually know what they're talking about.
- Let me click on that button versus an open ended response.
- They're much more honest when they talk about sensitive topics like politics and mental health."
Stats & Key Facts
- #Listen Labs, a startup building AI-powered customer interviews, raised $69 million in Series B funding led by Ribbit Capital.
- #The round values the company at $500 million and brings total capital to $100 million.
- #His startup, Listen Labs , needed to hire over 100 engineers, but competing against Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million offers seemed impossible.
- #That unconventional approach has now attracted $69 million in Series B funding, led by Ribbit Capital with participation from Evantic and existing investors Sequoia Capital , Conviction , and Pear VC .
Alfred Wahlforss was running out of options. His startup, Listen Labs , needed to hire over 100 engineers, but competing against Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million offers seemed impossible. So he spent $5,000 - a fifth of his marketing budget - on a billboard in San Francisco displaying what looked like gibberish: five strings of random numbers.
The numbers were actually AI tokens. Decoded, they led to a coding challenge: build an algorithm to act as a digital bouncer at Berghain, the Berlin nightclub famous for rejecting nearly everyone at the door. Within days, thousands attempted the puzzle.
The winner flew to Berlin, all expenses paid. That unconventional approach has now attracted $69 million in Series B funding, led by Ribbit Capital with participation from Evantic and existing investors Sequoia Capital , Conviction , and Pear VC . The round values Listen Labs at $500 million and brings its total capital to $100 million.
For more details please read the original article at VentureBeat AI.
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