Hasan Sukkar, founder of AI startup 11x, announced this morning on LinkedIn that he is stepping down from his role as CEO. Prabhav Jain, 11x’s CTO, has been appointed as the new CEO of the company.
Sukkar will transition into a “non-executive chairman” position, collaborating with Jain on strategic direction, product vision, industry relationships, and exploring new market opportunities, as mentioned in his LinkedIn post. He expressed his commitment to supporting 11x in any way possible in the future.
“I’ve been reflecting on what it takes to transition from a fast-growing startup to a sustainable, enterprise-grade scale-up, and I’ve come to realize that building from scratch is where my passion lies,” Sukkar shared on LinkedIn. “I have a deep love for 11x and our mission. We have a huge opportunity ahead. However, sometimes, being devoted to your company means knowing when to hand over the CEO responsibilities for the next phase of growth.”
Back in March, reports surfaced about 11x showcasing customer logos on their website of companies that were not actually active customers. This led to legal threats from one of those companies. Sources also disclosed issues with the 11x product and challenges with customer retention. According to some employees, the startup was described as a demanding place to work.
The company has secured over $70 million in funding from investors, with a $24 million Series A round led by Sarah Tavel of Benchmark, and a $50 million Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Joe Schmidt from a16z, part of the 11x deal, publicly reaffirmed his support for the company and its CEO in a post on X, emphasizing the team’s excellence.
Tavel, also a board member of 11x, expressed confidence in the progress made by the team. She stated that her belief in the team and the opportunity has only grown stronger. Tavel, who became a general partner at Benchmark in 2017, mentioned taking on the role of venture partner recently, a more focused position at the firm.
A representative for 11x clarified in an email that the leadership change was aimed at ensuring the right person was in the CEO position for the company’s new growth phase. The current CTO, former Brex executive, and three-time founder Prabhav Jain will take over as CEO, with Hasan Sukkar transitioning to the Non-Executive Chairman role. The spokesperson highlighted 11x’s evolution from a single-product, single-use case company to a platform supporting numerous leading GTM teams worldwide in the past year.
Benchmark and a16z have not provided further comments at this time.
Charles Rollet contributed to this report.
