Listen Labs raises $69M after viral billboard hiring stun...

What’s Happening

Breaking it down: Alfred Wahlforss was running out of options.

His startup, Listen Labs, needed to hire over 100 engineers, but competing against Mark Zuckerbergs $100 million offers seemed impossible. So he spent $5,000 — a fifth of his marketing budget — on a billboard in San Francisco displaying what looked like gibberish: five strings of random numbers. (it feels like chaos)

The numbers were actually AI tokens.

The Details

Decoded, they led to a coding challenge: build an algorithm to act as a digital bouncer at Berghain, the Berlin nigh Listen Labs raises $69M after viral billboard hiring stunt to grow AI customer interviews Michael Nuñez Credit: VentureBeat made with Midjourney Alfred Wahlforss was running out of options. His startup, Listen Labs , needed to hire over 100 engineers, but competing against Mark Zuckerbergs $100 million offers seemed impossible.

Within days, thousands attempted the puzzle. The winner flew to Berlin, all expenses paid.

Why This Matters

That unconventional approach has now attracted $69 million in Series B funding, led by Ribbit Capital with participation from Evantic and existing investors Sequoia Capital , Conviction , and Pear VC . The round values Listen Labs at $500 million and brings its total capital to $100 million. In nine months since launch, the company has grown annualized revenue by 15x to eight figures and conducted over one million AI-powered interviews.

As AI capabilities expand, we’re seeing more announcements like this reshape the industry.

Key Takeaways

• “When you obsess over users, everything else follows,” Wahlforss dropped in an interview with VentureBeat.
• “Teams that use Listen bring the customer into every decision, from marketing to product, and when the customer is delighted, everyone is.

The Bottom Line

” Why traditional market research is broken, and what Listen Labs is building to fix it Listens AI researcher finds participants, conducts in-depth interviews, and delivers actionable insights in hours, not weeks. The platform replaces the traditional choice between quantitative surveys — which provide statistical precision but miss nuance—and qualitative interviews, which deliver depth but cannot grow.

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