Former Founders Fund VC Sam Blond launches AI sales startup to upend Salesforce
Source: TechCrunch
When Sam Blond left his role as a VC at Founders Fund a year ago — just 18 months after joining — he announced that “being a VC wasn’t for me and I’m going back to operating”【source】.
On Wednesday he officially launched his new startup, Monaco【monaco.com】, out of stealth. The company was co‑founded with his brother Brian Blond (partner at Human Capital, former Sutter Hill VC) and two other veterans: Abishek Viswanathan (former CPO at Apollo and Qualtrics) and Malay Desai (former SVP of engineering at Clari).
Funding
- Total raised: $35 million
- $10 million seed round
- $25 million Series A round
- Lead investors: Founders Fund (both rounds) with participation from Human Capital.
- Angel backers: Patrick and John Collison (Stripe founders), Garry Tan (Y Combinator), and Neil Mehta (Greenoaks Capital).
Product & Approach
Monaco enters the crowded AI‑sales space with a hybrid model:
- AI‑native CRM built from the ground up.
- Proprietary prospect database (ZoomInfo‑like) for finding and prioritizing leads.
- AI agents that can generate and execute email outreach sequences, draft follow‑up messages, and take meeting notes.
- Human‑in‑the‑loop sales experts who monitor AI output, prevent hallucinations, and conduct the actual customer meetings (no avatars).
“We can replace full workflows with agents,” Blond explains. “Monaco builds a prospect database, identifies the right contacts, orchestrates the outreach sequence, and even schedules meetings.”
Target Market
Monaco focuses on early‑stage companies (seed and Series A) that need sophisticated sales automation but cannot yet hire senior sales talent directly. The service‑plus‑technology model makes experienced salespeople available as a scalable resource.
Competition
- Direct competitors: HubSpot (positioned as a more affordable alternative for young companies) and, indirectly, Salesforce.
- Other AI‑sales startups: Attio, Clay, Conversion, 11x, Artisan, 1mind, among many YC‑backed ventures.
- Incumbent platforms: Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, ZoomInfo, all of which are adding AI and agentic features.
Blond notes that while many upstarts claim to replace human sales reps, Monaco deliberately avoids “human‑replacement” narratives and instead augments sales teams with AI‑assisted experts.
Market Outlook
- The current market leader in sales technology is Salesforce.
- Blond believes the industry is on the cusp of a “platform shift” that will produce a new leader, and he aims for Monaco to fill that role.
- He likens the potential breakthrough to “Cursor for sales” — a reference to the popular AI coding tool — suggesting that a similarly transformative product is still forthcoming.
Company Culture
- Team size: ~40 employees.
- Office vibe: Filled with career salespeople, WWII‑style motivational posters (“Save Startups,” “Build the future with Monaco”), and a gong that rings whenever the AI secures a meeting with a prospect.
For more details, see the original announcements on TechCrunch:
- Sam Blond’s departure from Founders Fund: https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/04/brex-sam-blond-leaves-founders-fund/
- Monaco’s launch: https://www.monaco.com/