A New Era in Sales Knowledge Management: The Journey of George Avetisov and 1up
In the rapidly evolving world of technology, George Avetisov, the former CEO and founder of HYPR, found himself facing a recurring challenge. Immersed in the day-to-day operations with his sales team, Avetisov observed a common obstacle: no matter how skilled his sales representatives were, they frequently needed to consult other departments to address customer inquiries or complete technical questionnaires.
“They don’t know the answers to most questions that get asked of them,” Avetisov shared with TechCrunch. “They have to ask a product person, they have to pull in a sales engineer. It’s a daunting task.”
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The Birth of 1up
Recognizing this gap, Avetisov decided to tackle this problem head-on. After leaving HYPR in 2021 and taking some downtime conquering the video game Elden Ring, he founded 1up in 2022. This innovative company is an AI-powered knowledge automation platform designed specifically for sales teams.
- 1up draws information from internal company data sources and databases.
- Enables sales professionals to quickly find answers to complex product or technical questions.
- Assists in executing requests for proposals and filling out technical questionnaires.
An Unconventional Marketing Strategy
Since its public launch in January 2024, 1up has attracted nearly 100 customers, ranging from startups to large enterprises like WalkMe and Deliveroo. A significant part of their customer acquisition strategy is unexpectedly quirky yet effective: memes.
“We run one of the biggest sales meme libraries in the community, and we get millions of impressions on LinkedIn,” Avetisov explained. “One out of three of our leads comes from a meme.”
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Securing Investment and Looking Forward
Recently, 1up announced a $5 million funding round spearheaded by Upfront Ventures, with additional support from RRE Ventures, 8-Bit Capital, and individual investors such as Friendster founder Jonathan Abrams. Upfront’s general partner Kobie Fuller was particularly impressed by Avetisov’s firsthand understanding of the problem.
“So much of how we make investment decisions is around the founder…George saw the problem and pain point first hand,” Fuller noted.
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The Future of AI in Sales
Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, AI startups focusing on sales tools have surged. Despite this saturation, Avetisov remains confident that 1up offers a distinct value proposition that stands apart from AI sales lead generators.
“Our philosophy on this is that for knowledge automation to succeed and become a billion-dollar company or industry, it needs to be laser-focused on a persona and on a department,” Avetisov emphasized.
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Next Steps for 1up
With fresh funding secured, 1up plans to expand its sales team and introduce new features—details of which are still under wraps. Avetisov has a clear vision for enhancing the tools available to sales teams worldwide.
“Sales teams get a lot of challenges…when it comes to knowledge management, they have been completely neglected. So that’s our hot take. That’s our laser focus.”
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