Sam Blond, who left his role at Founders Fund last year after just 18 months to return to operating, has unveiled his new startup, Monaco, marking his re entry into the sales technology space. The company, co founded with his brother Brian Blond, a partner at Human Capital and former Sutter Hill investor, is entering the increasingly competitive AI powered sales market with a hybrid model that combines artificial intelligence tools and experienced human sales professionals.
Monaco has raised a total of $35 million, comprising a $10 million seed round and a $25 million Series A, both led by Founders Fund with participation from Human Capital. The startup also attracted prominent angel investors including Stripe founders Patrick and John Collison, Y Combinator chief Garry Tan and Greenoaks Capital founder Neil Mehta. After operating in private beta, the company has now opened its AI sales platform to public testing.
The platform targets seed and Series A startups with an AI native customer relationship management system and a proprietary database for prospect discovery, similar in function to ZoomInfo. Its AI agents can build prospect lists, identify decision makers, execute outreach campaigns and draft follow up emails. However, unlike several competitors promoting fully automated sales representatives, Monaco embeds experienced human sales professionals in the process to supervise outputs, prevent errors and conduct actual customer meetings.
Blond said the goal is not to replace sales teams but to augment early stage companies that lack the resources to hire senior talent. The product is positioned as a flat fee service, currently discounted during its beta phase, and competes primarily with platforms such as HubSpot, while also entering a crowded field that includes emerging AI driven sales development tools and established players like Salesforce, Zoho and ZoomInfo, all of which are integrating AI features into their offerings.
Blond argues that the market is on the verge of a platform shift in sales technology, similar to transformations seen in other software categories. Drawing on his background as former head of sales at Brex, he maintains that sales technology is the natural arena for his return to entrepreneurship. Monaco currently employs about 40 staff and is aiming to establish itself as a leading contender in what it describes as the next generation of AI powered sales infrastructure.