a16z and Benchmark-backed 11x has been claiming customers it doesn’t have

Last year, the AI-driven sales automation startup appeared in the trajectory of 11 X explosive growth.

However, about two dozen sources, including investors, current and former employees, tell TechCrunch that the company has mainly struggled in its own creation.

Numerous people in the United States and the UK told TechCrunch that the situation became so clear that the main series B investor of 11x could consider the Andresen Horovits even legal action. However, a spokeswoman for Andresen Horovits denied this type of riot, told Techchenchch that A1 16 Z was not being sued.

11 X Outbound provides an AI bot for cool sales tariffs, including marking the possibility, creating custom messages and schedules of sales calls. It is one of several AI startups in the hot region, known as AI Sale Development Representative, Or AI SDRSThe

Established in 2022 by Hassan Sukkar, 11 x said it $ 10 million has reached near Only two years after the launch, annual repetition (ARR). It moved from London to Silicon Valley last July and made a declaration $ 24 million series A Benchmark led in September. TechCrunch breaks a news $ 50 million series b At the end of that month, Andresen was led by Harovits. (Benchmark refused to comment.)

Three current and ex -11x workers told TechCrunch that most of its primary customers took advantage of the “brake clause” in their sales agreement to stop using the product. According to sources, customers face the problem of not working as expected or hallucinations.

There were also some interior plays. Employees described a harsh, stressful work environment – even for those who adopt the culture in a hurry. They mentioned it in the primary personnel Pictures published by TechCrunch at the company’s launch, Only the CEO remains Sukkar.

Fake Customer Authorization

Like many startups, 11 X pride shows customer logos on its website that indicates customer approval and is usually displayed with customer consent.

However, TechCrunch has learned that multiple companies, including logo on the 11x website, were not real customers and at least one was threatening legal action on it.

“We did not allow them to use our logo in any way, and we are not customers,” a spokesperson for Zuminfo told TechCrunch. A formula near TechCrunch did not move the logo after March 6 after searching about it. However, even after that date, the company’s phone AI agent continues to repeat the customer’s claim.

Zuminpho, which provides sales data and automation equipment, conducted a short, one -month trial of AI SDR from mid -February to mid -January, spokesperson. “During the pilot, the product of 11 X did significantly worse than our SDR staff and we did not move forward later.”

And yet “since November, 11X has been claiming to be customers on many channels: on sales calls, on his website, even on his AI dialer.

Zuminfo lawyer is now threatening to take legal action, according to an email seen by Sukkar’s TechCrunch from Zuminfore lawyer. The lawyer wrote that he was “fraudulent trade practice, trademark violation, goodwill abuse and false advertisement but not limited”

Similarly, the Airtable logo was displayed on the 11x website a few weeks ago and until March 20, the website of 11x still named Airtable the company’s “Manifesto” page as “Customer”. Airtable told TechCrunch it was not a customer and did not allow 11x for its logo use.

Airtable also conducted a “very brief” trial of the product late last year, “and eventually decided that it was not suitable for our business,” an airline spokesperson TechCrunch. “It has never been used in production and never roll out in our sales team.”

And yet until March 21, 11x was still claiming Airtable as a customer on his website. And another company, who did not want to be named, told TechCrunch a similar story.

Our research shows, but some customer claims were valid. For example, Plio and RHO have confirmed that they are using 11x products.

11 X emphasized that “the request was removed on their site and their products immediately removed the references to any unwanted or incorrect customer” and “it was not” when it was not done “it was” due to human error “.

A creative way to calculate RR

Meanwhile, at least three employees have said that they have left the company because they are considered as the company’s shadow strategy.

For example, 11x was “Avara” the possibilities that pilot programs want to sign a one -year contract, a potential customer said. “They were resistant to any kind of test or to give us the test,” this potential customer continued.

Instead, 11x offered a break section to customers, usually within three months, which makes customers easier to break the contract. This former employee and potential customer said it originally worked as a test time.

However, when reporting the annual repeated revenue (ARR), the company did not distinguish between trial and long -term customers, former and current staff said. The company will count the ARR based on the whole year.

11 X says that it used to “use the contract ARR (CAR)” when reporting the board, and its investors were aware that it used the metric. 11 X says investors have reviewed customer contracts, customer data files and spoke to customers during their proper work.

Even after using the possibilities to finish their payments and the break in their payment, the company kept counting these companies in such a way that these companies were finishing the entire year’s contract.

A spokesman for the 8x says that the startup provides “Free Trials” and qualifies for “most of the Middle Market customers” but some enterprise customers with “highly specialized” and customized requirements are “a 12-month agreement with opt-out after 3 months.”

The number of slow-term-continuing companies was high-more employees said. One employee said, “We were losing 70-5% of customers coming through the door.” It allowed to show that the 11x “is doing better than it is to see”, “the person has continued.

For example, the company may say that in reality, when the three -month -old agreement was just about a million dollars, its annual repeated revenue was $ 14 million, the employee said.

The other former employee said, “When they grow and slowly they were internally massaged the numbers.”

11 X says that its “maximum churn” “happened for early parties” “2023”, but the improvement of the product and the sale of its “ideal customer” has improved. 11 X says that its “holding rate is currently 5%.”

The problem was not necessarily that 11x cars were using it to display its growth, zealous capitalists say, but investors are expecting startups to earn potential opt-out earnings and customer churnings.

Underhalems of goods

At least one of the current and four ex -employees has canceled after their trial because they were not satisfied with the product.

Some churning because customers had unrealistic expectations, hoping that 11x could replace the entire outbound sales team by saving a few thousand dollars a year, a former employee said.

This person said that 5X salesmen often told the possibilities that in several months they could expect a huge enthusiasm for meetings, demo and phone calls because of startup technology – employees believe this to be unrealistic.

“The actual result of the amount of automatic email was booked vs. was disappointing,” said a company that tried the product.

11 X says that it believes that its product exceeds the human SDR but “the performance ends the user’s quality of the input.” It also says that it does not guarantee savings or revenue on its sales pitch.

Other customers complained that the 11x product was hallucinating or the product would not be loaded at all, the former employee continued. On a reviewer Medium The product is stated that it is much less effective and still spends more than its competitors.

A former engineer told TechCrunch, “Products just work.” Instead, customers need to manually test the work and correct it, to overcome the purpose of buying 11x products in the first place, another employee said.

In addition, the company had occasional billing problems. A customer was given a bill twice for their three -month trial period. The customer said, “It looked like they were trying to get something in our past.”

Considering the investment in the series A, a VC discovered that the technology does not work well during the proper perseverance process. The existing customers of 11 X told the investor that they were initially satisfied but one month after use, the startup’s AI failed to create effective leadership.

These investors said about the experience, a current employee protected the agency how 11X works for customers. This person said that the company is trying to find ways to encourage more customers to stay longer.

Churning of employee

Employees have described the work environment with a lot of employees under the founder-CEO Sukkar.

Employees and messages viewed by TechCrunch were expected to work at least 60 hours a week with heavy pressure.

Slack messages asking Sukkar where everyone was at 9pm, after the employees tell the employees that the work day started at 9am.

A current employee said, “He does not believe in the vacation.” Another former employee said they were expected to work on weekends and national holidays.

A former employee recalled, “You may have the founder of Slack, perhaps sending three messages to ‘it needs to be solved urgently,’

When employees cannot be reached immediately – or if something goes wrong – Sukar was familiar to post his frustrations about the worker on the ordinary slack channel to watch everyone, with at least two employees withdrawn.

Two employees said the employees who spoke had risked the threat of dismissal.

Referring to Sukkar, an current employee said, “There is much more below the hood.” One day, this guy will have a documentary about. I believe that he is how scandalous. ”

1 X says that it was a turnover experience from London to San Francisco last July. It says that its headcount has doubled in that period now includes 50 full-time employees

At least one ex -employee that we talked about they said they were still waiting a few months after leaving.

Anxiety over the backpack after leaving is in a part of the culture that a current employee said that the maximum wonders are waiting for the nearest pay before leaving the salary.

“We got the salary today,” a current employee said. “I hope a few people will resign on the weekend or Monday.”