Closer to Fine
The AI Marketers Guild launches in NYC; PVCP announces Q2 startup funding
There is no greater artistic contrast than the authentic, homegrown-in-Georgia duo Indigo Girls and the fraudulent, talent-devoid duo Milli Vanilli.
But on the evening of February 21, 1990, in the city of Los Angeles, the journey of both of these acts would be intertwined forever, as Milli Vanilli won the coveted Best New Artist Grammy Award over the Indigo Girls.
By the end of that year, Milli Vanilli would return their Grammy, which was then not awarded to anyone else, on the basis of their false album credits failing to say who actually performed on the band’s album.
The lines get blurry quickly when it comes to who deserves credit, and who receives credit, for modern-day musical composition and performance. The Monkees, for example, were entirely a studio fabrication. Gorillaz are a highly-successful virtual band, as another example.
And in the age of technology we live in now, numerous artists can’t come close to replicating their computer-generated recordings in live environments.
But the combination of a fake band winning a very real award was a bridge too far.
Milli Vanilli’s deceit denied the Indigo Girls a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win a coveted award, but they settled for a fantastic multi-decade career of financial success which afforded them the opportunity to chart their own course, which includes funding numerous social and environmental causes.
The AI Marketers Guild - launched earlier this month - is dedicated to empowering marketing professionals in the rapidly evolving field of AI marketing.
The brainchild of longtime NYC marketer David Berkowitz, AIMG fosters a collaborative community, offers highly-targeted professional development and networking opportunities, and enables members to grow their businesses.
Members have already joined from small startups to large enterprises such as Amazon, Meta, Walmart, Snap, Accenture, and many others.
I had a chance to speak with David earlier today, and welcomed AIMG in to Project Voice 2024 (April 22-24, Chattanooga TN) as a media partner of our annual conference.
This news succeeds last week’s announcement of leading global AI ethicist Merve Hickok joining the program to deliver the opening keynote.
The new member application for the AI Marketers Guild can be found here. There’s a free tier for members planning on being active within the organization, and for marketers and startup executives inside and outside of AI, there’s value in what AIMG is building.
As we announced earlier this week, we’re pleased to share the teams at Jaid and Inpris HumAIns are our latest Project Voice Capital Partners investments, belonging to the Q2 2023 vintage of our conversational AI-focused fund.
Led by CEO Dan Kramer, who brings twenty years of executive experience with global financial organizations, UK-based Jaid uses conversational AI to extract valuable data from investment management communications and customer service.
Led by CEO Nissan Yaron, Israel-based Inpris brings a unique approach to applying generative AI to customer support and experience, already having built substantial market presence within the automotive sector.
They join Novel Effect, helmed by Matthew Hammersley and Melissa Hammersley, and susuROBO, led by Maxim Makatchev, within the PVCP family.
The PVCP fund portfolio can be viewed here.
Info on the fund itself can be found here, via our friends at AngelList.
We are now meeting with conversational AI startups seeking investment, as we head into Q3. If that’s you, shoot me an email at bradley@pvcp.vc.
