Executive Spotlight: Sam Blond, Co-founder and CEO of Monaco (2027)
Sam Blond is the co-founder and CEO of Monaco, an AI-native sales platform that combines a CRM, AI agents and experienced human salespeople for young startups. Before Monaco he was a partner at Founders Fund and, earlier, head of sales (Chief Revenue Officer) at Brex. He is described in coverage as a non-technical founder whose expertise is sales.
This page covers public professional information only, drawn from published coverage and a podcast episode summary.
Current role and company
TechCrunch reported on February 11, 2026 that Blond launched Monaco after leaving Founders Fund, where he had spent about 18 months. TechCrunch characterizes Monaco as an AI-native, all-in-one CRM with a prospecting database built from scratch, AI agents for email outreach and follow-ups, and a meeting notetaker. It pairs that software with experienced human salespeople who monitor the AI and run customer meetings.
- CompanyMonaco.
- TitleCo-founder and CEO, per TechCrunch coverage; a May 2026 funding report calls him Founder and CEO.
- Co-foundersBrian Blond, Abishek Viswanathan and Malay Desai, per TechCrunch.
- Target customersYoung seed and Series A startups.
Career path
- Zenefits. According to a GTMnow podcast summary, he was VP of Sales at Zenefits, where revenue grew from $1M to $70M in two years.
- Brex. He later led revenue at Brex as Chief Revenue Officer, scaling it from $1M to hundreds of millions in annual recurring revenue, per the same summary. TechCrunch describes him as Brex's former head of sales.
- Founders Fund. He joined the venture firm as an investing partner and left after about 18 months, saying he was going back to operating, per TechCrunch.
- Monaco. He co-founded Monaco, which came out of stealth on February 11, 2026.
What he is known for
- Scaling Brex's revenue. The GTMnow summary credits him with growing Brex revenue from $1M to hundreds of millions in ARR and highlights creative demand generation campaigns there.
- AI plus humans in sales. Monaco's approach, as TechCrunch describes it, is software agents supervised by experienced salespeople rather than an agent posing as a rep.
- Well-known backers. TechCrunch says Founders Fund and Human Capital led or joined the first two rounds, with angels including Patrick and John Collison, Garry Tan and Neil Mehta.
Leadership style and philosophy
In TechCrunch's launch story, Blond said "We can replace full workflows with agents" and that Monaco does not have an agent pretending to be a sales rep selling to the customer. In a GTMnow podcast summary (paraphrased by the host site, not direct quotes), his themes include investing early in sales operations and revenue operations, generating pipeline through creative demand campaigns, and being wary of scaling sales teams too fast on flawed hiring models.
Key numbers
Press-reported figures for Monaco, with dates. They are not personal figures.
- Seed and Series A$35 million in total ($10M seed, $25M Series A), led by Founders Fund with Human Capital; reported February 11, 2026.
- Team sizeAbout 40 employees at the February 2026 launch, per TechCrunch.
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, per the May 2026 funding report.
What to watch next
The May 2026 report said Monaco had moved from stealth into a public beta with hundreds of customers and expected general availability soon. Worth tracking: whether the human-plus-AI model scales and how Monaco fares against incumbent CRMs such as HubSpot, which TechCrunch names as its main competitor.
Questions people ask
Who is Sam Blond?
He is the co-founder and CEO of Monaco, an AI-native sales platform, and a former partner at Founders Fund and former head of sales at Brex.
What does Monaco do?
TechCrunch describes it as an AI-native CRM with a prospecting database, AI agents for outreach and follow-ups and a meeting notetaker, paired with experienced human salespeople.
Who founded Monaco with Sam Blond?
TechCrunch names Brian Blond, Abishek Viswanathan and Malay Desai as co-founders.
How much has Monaco raised?
$35 million in seed and Series A funding as of February 2026, according to TechCrunch.
What did Sam Blond do at Brex?
He led sales and revenue, serving as Chief Revenue Officer, as revenue scaled from $1M to hundreds of millions in ARR, per a GTMnow podcast summary.
Why did he leave Founders Fund?
TechCrunch reports he left after about 18 months, saying he was going back to operating, and launched Monaco.
Sources
- TechCrunch: Former Founders Fund VC Sam Blond launches AI sales startup (Feb 11, 2026) · Role, background, product, funding, co-founders, quotes, founders photo
- GTMnow: Scaling to $100M ARR with Sam Blond (GTM 105) · Zenefits and Brex career, philosophy themes
- Monaco website · Company homepage
Facts were read from the linked pages on October 31, 2026, partly through a fetch tool that returns summaries, so confirm details on the original pages. The hero image is cropped from the founders photo that TechCrunch credits to Monaco; TechCrunch's text places Sam Blond third from the left. This page covers public professional information only.
Top photo: Monaco, via TechCrunch (Feb 11, 2026), cropped from a founders photo