Tribe AI, an AI talent and services company founded by Jaclyn Rice Nelson and Noah Gale in 2019, was required to persuade organizations that an AI strategy was essential
Gale informed TechCrunch that the startup has experienced a “massive boom” in demand following the release of ChatGPT in 2022 and the AI mania it ushered in.
Rice Nelson, the CEO of Tribe, disclosed to TechCrunch that she recognized the impending doom during her tenure as a Growth VP at CapitalG, Alphabet’s growth fund. She observed companies the firm supported, such as Airbnb and Stripe, requesting assistance from Google in data science and machine learning.
For example, Google and Google Cloud were recognized for their ML/AI expertise before the emergence of generative AI. This expertise was the foundation of the popular machine learning training framework Tensorflow. Gale observed a comparable pattern in his position at Gigster, a platform that facilitates the formation of software development teams.
“These best-in-class emerging companies were seeking assistance from Google,” stated Rice Nelson. “It was exceedingly challenging for any organization, including Silicon Valley technology companies, to capitalize on this technology unless they were Google, Amazon, or others.”
Tribe AI was initially established by the two to assist companies in recruiting contract AI talent. However, it has since evolved into a comprehensive AI services firm.
Tribe constructs products and initiatives for clients by employing its network of more than 500 contractors. The organization maintains partnerships with cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, and Google, as well as large language models like OpenAI and Anthropic, and is platform-agnostic. Companies such as New Relic and MyFitnessPal are among its clients.
Tribe declined to disclose revenue details; however, Rice Nelson stated that the startup will double its eight-figure revenue run rate this year. This was partially because its talent is contracted on an as-needed basis rather than as full-time employees, which helps to maintain minimal payroll costs.
The Brooklyn-based startup has been bootstrapping for the past six years, but it has recently secured a $3.25 million seed round led by Bryce Roberts, the founding partner of Indie. This venture fund supports early-stage companies that are unlikely to receive significant funding. Additionally, the startup’s customers, angel investors, and members of Tribe’s AI network participated in the round.
“The demand has undergone an immense transformation since GenAI’s arrival,” Rice Nelson stated. “We experienced the market pull from customers and partners such as Google, AWS, and Azure.” “OpenAI and Anthropic were being inundated and overwhelmed, and they were unable to meet the demand.”
Consequently, the capital will assist Tribe in augmenting its staff to accommodate the increasing demand. It will support the creation of tools that will automate various aspects of these projects, enabling the team to work more efficiently on them.
Tribe is not the sole organization interested in assisting entities with their AI strategy. Rice Nelson believes Tribe’s primary competitors are the main consulting organizations, such as Accenture and McKinsey. Rice Nelson believes that Tribe can compete due to its lack of inexperience and its intention to offer customers the necessary talent and expertise to complete their projects rather than instructing them on how to do so.
Rice Nelson stated, “We have been in operation since 2019, long before ChatGPT, and have since developed hundreds of AI products.”