Geoff McDonald has a bold claim about what his Seattle startup is building: “the most connected AI feedback network on the planet.”
Whether that’s true or hyperbole, Ambassador just raised $7 million from investors betting that companies desperately need better ways to make sense of customer feedback scattered across dozens of disconnected tools.
Marketing and revenue teams use Ambassador to manage customer referrals, surveys, loyalty programmes, email outreach, and other engagement tools from a single platform. The company says it works with more than 200 customers globally, including large enterprises in telecom, fintech, and B2B software.
The funding coincides with the launch of HiroAI, the company’s new AI layer designed to analyse customer engagement data across different systems and recommend actions to improve retention and revenue.
Ambassador says HiroAI is designed to support marketing teams by surfacing insights and guiding next steps, but not completely automating decisions. The company is betting that businesses want fewer disconnected tools and more automation as teams shrink and budgets tighten.
McDonald said Ambassador is using AI itself to replace some manual internal work such as lead scoring and customer outreach. The company has 22 employees.
Ambassador was acquired from Intrado in 2021. McDonald previously co-founded and led Seattle startup Element Data.
The latest funding round includes investment from former Zipwhip executives and employees, including Zipwhip co-founder John Larson, who is chief strategy officer and co-founder at Ambassador.
“This is my personal biggest bet I’ve made as an investor,” Larson said, a statement that carries weight given Zipwhip sold to Twilio for $850 million in 2021 before Twilio shut it down two years later.
Other backers include Archibald Cox Jr., former chairman of Barclays; VentureUs; former Zipwhip executive James Lapic; and Seattle-based investors Cliff Monlux and Paul Stahura. Total funding to date is $11 million.
The customer feedback problem Ambassador is trying to solve has gotten worse as software proliferated. A typical marketing team might use Salesforce for customer relationship management, SurveyMonkey for surveys, Mailchimp for email, a separate referral platform, another tool for loyalty programmes, and spreadsheets to try making sense of it all.
Each system captures valuable information about what customers think and do. But the insights sit isolated in separate databases, making it nearly impossible to see patterns or act quickly on opportunities.
HiroAI’s pitch is connecting those dots. The AI layer sits on top of Ambassador’s platform, which already consolidates multiple customer engagement functions. It analyses data across systems looking for patterns human marketers might miss.
The “recommend actions but don’t automate decisions” approach reflects lessons learned from early AI implementations that went wrong. Companies that let AI make customer-facing decisions without human oversight often discovered the algorithms made choices that technically optimised metrics but damaged relationships.
Ambassador’s strategy of supporting rather than replacing human judgment tries to avoid that trap whilst still delivering the efficiency gains AI promises.
McDonald’s comment about using AI internally to replace manual work like lead scoring demonstrates the company practices what it preaches. With just 22 employees supporting more than 200 customers, automation isn’t optional.
The Zipwhip connection running through Ambassador’s investor base tells an interesting story. Zipwhip built business texting software that Twilio acquired for $850 million, then controversially shut down in 2023. Several Zipwhip veterans, including Larson, are now backing Ambassador.
Larson calling this his “personal biggest bet” as an investor suggests confidence born from experience. He’s seen what works in building software companies in Seattle and apparently believes Ambassador has similar potential.
The enterprise customers Ambassador mentions in telecom, fintech, and B2B software represent sectors where customer feedback directly impacts revenue. Telecom companies lose customers over service issues. Fintech firms live and die by trust. B2B software companies depend on renewals and referrals.
For those businesses, connecting feedback from surveys, support tickets, referrals, and engagement metrics could reveal why customers leave or stay, enabling interventions that save accounts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The timing of raising $7 million in the current venture capital environment indicates investors see real demand. Funding has been tight for early-stage companies, making this raise noteworthy for a 22-person startup.
The $11 million total funding to date is modest by Seattle startup standards but appropriate for a company focused on sustainable growth rather than hyper-scaling. Ambassador appears to be building methodically toward profitability rather than chasing massive valuations.
