Inside 14.ai this week: Monopoly, melted cheese, and a techcrunch feature.
The one where we finally made it onto a website that isn’t Reddit
We’re in TechCrunch
Our story started in Paris over a game of Monopoly.
Ten years later, we are in San Francisco building 14.ai together.
We always knew we wanted to build something in the US but we didn’t know what that would look like.
Everyone is building AI software for customer support. We decided not to.
Instead we take over the entire operation; the ticketing system, the agents, the humans, everything. One line item instead of three.
When a D2C brand joins us, we tell them stop answering tickets that same day.
Thank you Tom Blomfield for your support from day 0. 🧡
This is just the beginning.
Coming up: automating TikTok Shop at scale
Bora Mutluoglu is the co-founder of Reacher (YC S25) the platform helping brands automate creator marketing on TikTok Shop.
They’re working with names like Under Armour, Hanes, and Logitech, and they’ve built an engine that lets brands scale to thousands of creators without burning out their marketing team.
He’s joining us on LinkedIn Live to break down how brands are building scalable creator engines that drive consistent, compounding revenue, without relying on one viral moment to carry the quarter.
If you’re in e-commerce and haven’t figured out TikTok Shop yet, this is the one to catch.
https://www.linkedin.com/event/manage/7429619673421467648/
Ugo’s heading to LA
LA, we’re coming!
Our founding AI engineer Ugo Balducci is hitting the stage at Support Driven Summit LA, March 24–26.
His talk “Scaling E-commerce Support with an Engineering Mindset” is about what happens when you stop selling tools and own performance.
It’s the philosophy behind everything we do at 14.ai. AI is the engine. Service is the product.
If you’re attending, find Ugo.
He’s the French one who looks like he hasn’t slept in three days but has the best energy in the room.
First fondue
Good work gets rewarded with melted cheese around here.
We took Joshua Schiller, our newest AI engineer, out for his first ever fondue to celebrate some recent wins.
If you remember the power outage saga from a few Dispatches ago, Josh is the guy who showed up for his work trial the night all of SF went dark.
No wifi, no restaurants, no plan. He rolled with it, killed the trial, and now he’s officially part of the crew.
The team’s been grinding and it’s paying off. No better way to celebrate than gruyère.
Two computers, not two engineers
More computers = Less engineers.
Engineers are wrappers on computers anyway. Why have a middleman?
Behind the scenes: the TechCrunch shoot
TechCrunch didn’t end up using these pictures but I need to post them somewhere
Here’s what actually happened: We assembled on a Sunday night a clothes hanger rack in the five-star hotel lobby, brought our own champagne, shot Michael’s headshot in a random Uber, and the hotel manager was not happy.
They did turn out great though. The world is your stage.
What we’re reading this week
Ugo: The third era of AI software development, Michael Truell
Michael: Services: the New Software, Julien Bek
Marie: Slop vs Craft, Michael + Dalton
Is your chatbot not getting you in TechCrunch?
Book a call: https://calendly.com/14ai/15minchat
Until next time! Keep shipping, keep trusting your gut, and keep eating cheese.