TechCrunch reports 11x claimed customers it doesn't have and inflated ARR
TechCrunch reported that a16z- and Benchmark-backed 11x displayed logos of companies that said they were not customers (ZoomInfo and Airtable both denied being customers; ZoomInfo threatened legal action over the unauthorized logo) and counted full annual contract value as ARR even for customers who exercised a ~90-day break clause — so a stated ~$14M ARR may have reflected only ~$3M of contracts that cleared the trial. An employee cited 70-80% churn of inbound customers; 11x said retention was 79%. Founder-CEO Hasan Sukkar stepped down six weeks later (May 2025); CTO Prabhav Jain became CEO.
On 2025-03-24, TechCrunch reported that 11x — the a16z- and Benchmark-backed AI-SDR startup — had been displaying customer logos for companies that said they were not customers. ZoomInfo, which ran a one-month trial, said it did not authorize the logo and threatened legal action over deceptive trade practices and trademark infringement; Airtable said its logo was never authorized and the product “was never used in production.” Pleo and Rho were confirmed as actual customers.
The reporting also questioned the revenue behind 11x’s gated, sales-only model: 11x sold one-year contracts with a roughly 90-day break clause that functioned as a trial, but per an employee counted full annual contract value as ARR even after a customer exercised the break clause — so a stated ~$14M ARR may have represented only ~$3M of contracts that passed the trial. 11x said it uses “contracted ARR” investors understood, removes unauthorized mentions promptly, and put retention at 79%. Founder Hasan Sukkar stepped down as CEO in May 2025 (TechCrunch, Bloomberg), moving to non-executive chairman; CTO Prabhav Jain took over. This is a trust event, not a price change — but for a vendor that hides its price and sells on outcomes, it is the central pricing-adjacent signal in 11x’s history.
TechCrunch (2025-03-24) reported 11x displayed logos of companies that said they were not customers (ZoomInfo and Airtable denied being customers; ZoomInfo threatened legal action) and counted break-clause contracts as full ARR. An employee cited 70–80% churn of inbound customers; 11x said retention was 79%. A trust event, not a price change.