Mati Staniszewski still personally interviews every hire alongside his co-founder, Piotr Dąbkowski, even as ElevenLabs scales up to 400 employees, he said on the “20VC with Harry Stebbings” podcast published Sept. 7. This hands-on approach, according to Staniszewski, has helped the company outperform tech giants like OpenAI in voice AI benchmarks while securing multimillion-dollar contracts.
Staniszewski built Europe’s fastest-growing artificial intelligence company while maintaining a hands-on hiring practice that defies Silicon Valley orthodoxy. The ElevenLabs CEO crossed $200 million in annual revenue with just 250 employees organized into 20 micro-teams of five to 10 people each, according to Staniszewski.
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ElevenLabs CEO Expects $300 Million as He Personally Interviews Every Hire
The Polish entrepreneur told Stebbings he took 20 months to reach $100 million in revenue, then accelerated to $200 million in just 10 additional months. The voice cloning startup expects to surpass $300 million by year-end while maintaining its unconventional team structure, according to the interview.
The ElevenLabs CEO plans to keep interviewing hires even as the company grows to 1,000 employees, viewing this practice as essential quality control for company culture. Staniszewski acknowledged the primary constraint involves hiring velocity rather than his willingness to interview candidates.
Voice AI Empire Built on Polish Movie Frustration
ElevenLabs originated from Staniszewski’s frustration with Poland’s "terrible" movie dubbing system, where one monotone narrator voices every character regardless of gender or emotion.
The problem sparked an idea during a hack weekend project in early 2021 when Staniszewski and Dąbkowski, an ex-Google engineer and Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR) strategist, experimented with audio technology.
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“All movies are still dubbed where you have all the voices from the original, whether it’s a male or female voice narrated with one single character,” Staniszewski said. “So you have one voice narrating all the characters in a flat, non-emotional way. So it’s like an audiobook reading of a movie.”
The dubbing focus quickly shifted to text-to-speech technology when YouTubers showed lukewarm interest in dubbing but massive enthusiasm for voice generation tools, according to Staniszewski. The pivot proved crucial as creators needed simple solutions for post-production corrections and script previews.
ElevenLabs launched its beta in early 2023 after an audiobook author used the platform 500 times to create an entire book, stitching together text inputs to bypass AI content detection on publishing platforms.
Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz Lead $19M Round After Sequoia CEO Tests ElevenLabs' APIs
ElevenLabs raised $19 million in June 2023 from Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital after a unique courtship process. According to Staniszewski, Sequoia’s Brian Kim became the only investor to personally test the company’s application programming interfaces before investing, providing detailed technical feedback on voice quality and stability.
“He was the only person who tested our APIs and decided that it was actually valuable what we are doing. He gave me feedback on what we should change and then told me ‘I’m keen to invest,'” Staniszewski said.
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The startup’s pre-seed fundraising proved brutal, with 30 to 50 investors rejecting the company in early 2023, according to Staniszewski. Investors questioned whether the voice AI market existed and how two young Europeans could compete against tech giants.
ElevenLabs eventually raised $2 million at a $9 million valuation, with exactly 11% equity sold to align with the company name, Staniszewski said.
European Talent Density Outperforms Silicon Valley Giants
Staniszewski credits European talent density for ElevenLabs’ competitive advantage against Silicon Valley rivals. The company maintains research teams in Europe while building global distribution, challenging assumptions about the European work ethic.
"I think you can find people who want to work harder, and we've hired some people from the West Coast of the U.S., and our people — we have quite a few from Central and Eastern Europe — where like ‘Oh yeah, they don’t actually work as hard as we do,'" Staniszewski said.
“We have such true missionaries that are there on the weekend all the time and really care,” he added.
ElevenLabs plans international expansion with small outposts in Brazil, Japan, India, and Mexico while maintaining its micro-team structure. The company’s largest contract reaches $2 million annually, primarily serving call centers and customer support platforms, Staniszewski said.
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