About nine months ago, an Austin startup many people hadn't ever heard of announced a huge, $125 million funding round. Almost overnight, Jasper became almost a household name, one that helped put Austin into the frothy conversation about generative artificial intelligence.
Then, roughly a month later, OpenAI announced the public launch of ChatGPT, an interface that gave millions of people their first hands-on experience with generative AI that could almost instantly craft a cover letter, write a basic blog post or spin out an astounding amount of information on almost any topic.
The public launch seemed to undercut Jasper AI Inc.'s primary product, a software platform that helps content creators swiftly generate human-level content with just a few prompts. The platform was built on OpenAI's GPT product.
As recently as the South by Southwest festival in March, Jasper founder and CEO Dave Rogenmoser suggested the initial threat it seemed to pose wouldn't be a problem because of Jasper's growing customer base and focused approach to generative AI. One of the company's primary investors echoed that and suggested the booming excitement generated by ChatGPT might bring more attention to the emerging generative AI sector.
But Rogenmoser said this month on LinkedIn that Jasper is making an undisclosed number of layoffs.
"The people we are letting go as part of this change have been among the first to build, market and support AI products in the industry," Rogenmoser wrote. "Long before seemingly every business became an AI business, many of these people were charting the course."
As of March, Jasper had about 170 employees. The current headcount was not clear and the company couldn't be reached for comment. At least nine former employees have noted via LinkedIn posts that they were part of the layoffs.
Rogenmoser didn't get into specifics about what led to the layoffs and didn't mention OpenAI or other competitors. Instead, he hinted at forthcoming changes to the company.
"As marketing teams everywhere rapidly adopt AI, urgent, unmet needs are arising," he wrote. "With a tighter focus and the right resources, we can address those emerging needs and become the catalyst that helps our customers use AI to market smarter, not just faster."
Jasper's 2022 funding round came with a $1.5 billion valuation, making it one of the highest-profile AI companies in Austin and nationwide. But just a few months later, dozens of generative AI companies began to pop up, many of them leaning on OpenAI's GPT backbone.
"Over the past year, our industry has gone through an enormous amount of change: rapidly developing technology, an explosion of consumer AI tools, and a landscape that never sits still," Rogenmoser wrote in his July 11 LinkedIn post. "While we’ve served many different use-cases through all of this, we’ve seen that Jasper is at its best when helping marketing teams at mid-size and enterprise companies. We’ve come to realize however, that for us to have the fuel and focus we need to fully go after that opportunity, we need to reshape our own team."
In the layoff announcement, Rogenmoser noted that he'd help impacted employees find new opportunities. And within a couple days, several tech companies commented on the post, suggesting they might want to scoop up those looking for new jobs.
"The changes in our industry have indeed been monumental, and the need to adapt is crucial," wrote Sjoerd de Kreij, CEO of Amsterdam-based AI company Typetone. "On a brighter note: To those leaving Jasper, we invite you to join the Typetone team."
Daniel Wiener, CEO of Austin-based sales AI startup Autobound, also opened the door.
"We're based here in Austin too, in a similar space (AI for personalized sales emails), and will be growing our team very soon," he wrote. "Jasper team, stay strong and feel free to DM me!"
