Don’t stop hiring humans — stop hiring the wrong humans, Artisan’s founder says
Source: TechCrunch
Artisan may be known for their bold “Stop Hiring Humans” campaign, but the reality is every founder needs to assemble the right team if they want to scale. The fast‑growing AI startup is building AI employees for sales outbound and customer engagement. This week on Build Mode, Isabelle Johannessen spoke with Jaspar Carmichael‑Jack, co‑founder and CEO of Artisan, about the early days of growing their team and the hiring mistakes that could have killed them before they got off the ground.
Making the wrong hires or filling the wrong positions are mistakes that compound quickly. They waste time, drag down morale, and often create an execution lag that can be fatal to a startup just 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.”
But every mistake led to a valuable lesson that the founding team was able to implement going forward.
Overhiring
It’s much harder to keep a team of 50 on track and mission‑aligned than 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.
- No one on an early‑stage startup should have downtime.
- Hires should only happen when there is too much for the current team to handle.
Logo shopping
An impressive CV with experience at tech giants doesn’t always signal a person who is ready to dive into a startup. The skills needed to perform well on a large, well‑resourced team don’t always match what’s needed to execute in a startup environment. The experience and passion of a prospective employee matters more than big‑name logos on a résumé.
Hiring too senior or too junior
- Too senior: May not be able to operate in the chaos of an early‑stage startup and may expect structure that doesn’t yet exist.
- Too junior: Won’t have the skills to scale their function.
Being too quick to hire and too slow to fire
The hiring process should be patient and thorough, even with an impressive candidate. Meanwhile, decisive action is best when someone isn’t a good fit for the team.
“Early on, we were way too slow. We would sit on a decision for weeks or months, try to help a new hire a bit, but not really, and just float around. It never works out when you do that,” said Carmichael‑Jack. “You can tell when someone’s not working out in a role, and usually they know as well.”
Carmichael‑Jack’s early mistakes are a reminder that hiring isn’t just an operational task; it’s a strategic one. The wrong hire doesn’t just slow you down—it can reshape your culture, dilute your standards, and make every future hire harder. The right ones, however, compound just as quickly.
In the end, even a company building AI employees learned the same lesson every founder eventually does: You can’t scale a company without humans — they just have to be the right humans.
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Author Bios
Maggie Nye – Podcast Producer for TechCrunch based in Denver, Colorado. Previously Brand and Content Manager for BUILT BY GIRLS, where she developed an interest in tech and a passion for creating equitable, welcoming professional tech spaces. Holds a B.A. in Journalism with a minor in English from Hofstra University (NY).
Contact/verify outreach: maggie@techcrunch.com
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Isabelle Johannessen – Leads Startup Battlefield, TechCrunch’s iconic launchpad and competition for the world’s most promising early‑stage startups. She scouts top founders across 99+ countries and prepares them to pitch on the Disrupt stage in front of tier‑one investors and global media.
Contact/verify outreach: isabelle.johannessen@techcrunch.com
TechCrunch, she designed and led international startup acceleration programs across Japan, Korea, Italy, and Spain—connecting global founders with VCs and helping them successfully enter the U.S. market. With a Master’s in Entrepreneurship & Disruptive Innovation—and a past life as a professional singer—she brings a blend of strategic rigor and stage presence to help founders craft compelling stories and stand out in crowded markets.