ElevenLabs has grown from fewer than 200 people to over 400 and revenue from near $100m to near $300m, doubling its valuation to $6.6bn in nine months, according to GTM leader Oscar Lanzendorf.
Oscar Lanzendorf says ElevenLabs hires only the very best, since weaker hires would dilute the team, and claims it is harder to get into Harvard, except by YC, than to get a job there.
Oscar Lanzendorf predicts that sales tasks done behind a computer will be automated within a few years, making interpersonal relationships and events more important for sellers, while most ElevenLabs growth is inbound.
How ElevenLabs tripled revenue while betting sales on human contact
ElevenLabs grew from roughly $100m to $300m in revenue by operating as a research company that builds its own voice models and ships products on top. Oscar Lanzendorf argues that as AI absorbs the computer-bound parts of selling, go-to-market advantage moves to in-person relationships and to a team hired for extreme ownership.
Takeaways
ElevenLabs tripled revenue and doubled its valuation. Since Oscar joined, headcount rose from fewer than 200 to over 400, and revenue went from close to $100m to close to $300m. The valuation doubled from $3.3bn to $6.6bn within nine months. London now has over 100 people.
Proprietary research comes before every product. Like OpenAI and Anthropic, ElevenLabs builds its own models before releasing products. These include dubbing into over 70 languages, voice cloning, music and agents speaking more than 32 languages. Oscar attributes the improvement to top researchers and engineers, combined with data and accumulated experience.
Customers' own data is the agents' secret sauce. ElevenLabs supplies the voices and orchestration. Customers such as Jack and Jill pick the LLM and system prompt and add their own data and workflows. Customer support is an active focus, and Oscar thinks companies are neglecting agents for employee training.
Automation pushes sellers toward human relationships. Oscar expects behind-the-computer sales tasks to be automated, so presenting, pitching and events matter more. He keeps messages to about 15 words because a human reads roughly 150 words a minute. He favours short video and does his cold calling alone.
Conference value lives on stage and afterwards. Oscar says conferences are stuck in an old era. Pitch slots on topic-related stages drive the most value, and post-conference events beat booths. Booths only work with staff who qualify leads, and ElevenLabs recently hired someone to run and improve them.
EU data residency opened German enterprise. Most ElevenLabs growth is inbound, while enterprise outbound is aggressive. Before gaining EU data residency, the company could sign only one or two German enterprise customers on a specific form. Residency let it formally enter Germany recently.
Hiring screens for ownership and live problem-solving. Oscar says getting a job at ElevenLabs is harder than getting into Harvard, YC excepted. New joiners show high ownership and extreme drive. Interviews test what candidates can access right now rather than memory, and a past employer like Google counts for little alone.
Where voice AI and ElevenLabs go next
Within twelve to eighteen months, Oscar expects models to give everyone professional-level music skill, moving value toward ideas and marketing. ElevenLabs is entering music after recently adding image and video.
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On this episode 2
Show 1
Oscar changed his mind on content. He now thinks scrappier, less polished content can seem more human and message-driven.
Tris Tusa argues nothing suggests competitors will not catch up with ElevenLabs. Oscar expects the company to keep growing into 2026.
ElevenLabs wants to be one of the names people think of for European startups and unicorns.