[SaaS Series] The Rise of Voice AI and Next Generation WordPress Automation With Arto Minasyan

Arto Minasyan is the Co-founder and President of Krisp, a company that provides AI-powered noise cancellation and voice optimization to improve clarity in virtual communication. He is also the Co-founder and CEO of 10Web, an AI-driven WordPress platform that automates website building, hosting, and performance optimization for businesses and agencies.

Under his leadership, companies have raised $28 million, achieved profitability, seen Krisp named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2020, and led 10Web to over one million websites. Arto holds a master’s in physics, an MBA, and a PhD in mathematics and is also a partner at BigStory VC.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [4:56] Arto Minasyan shares the inspiration behind Krisp and its early focus on AI noise cancellation
• [8:32] Why Krisp blended B2B and B2C go-to-market strategies to drive adoption
• [13:31] The evolution from noise cancellation to transcription, meeting notes, and accent conversion
• [18:57] How Krisp landed its first major call center deal and uncovered strong product market fit
• [24:03] Why 10Web built an AI-powered website builder and chose a B2B API-driven model
• [33:09] The AI tools Arto’s teams rely on for engineering, marketing, and sales productivity

In this episode…

Voice technology is evolving faster than most people can track, redefining how we meet, collaborate, and build online. As AI becomes woven into everyday tools, tasks that once felt clunky or technical now feel surprisingly simple. So what happens when voice AI and automated web creation become powerful enough to feel effortless?

For Arto Minasyan, a longtime innovator in AI-driven communication, real progress occurs when technology removes friction from the experience instead of adding to it. He explains that people don’t embrace tools simply because they’re sophisticated — they stick with the ones that make life easier within seconds. That thinking guided Krisp’s expansion from basic noise reduction into transcription, meeting notes, and real-time accent conversion. His work on automated WordPress creation reflects the same principle: deliver immediate results through an API rather than forcing users to navigate a complex platform. By centering speed, clarity, and intuitive workflows, Arto sees AI reshaping the way people communicate and build online.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Arto Minasyan, Co-founder and President of Krisp, to discuss the rise of voice AI and next-generation WordPress automation. They explore Krisp’s expansion beyond noise cancellation, the power of an API-first website builder, and how timing shapes startup success. Arto also talks about the future of human-to-computer voice interaction.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Arto Minasyan on LinkedIn
• Krisp
• AI Meeting Assistant
• 10Web
• Twilio
• Sierra Ventures
• Claude Code
• Cursor
• ElevenLabs
• Gong AI
• Wispr Flow

Special mention:

• Davit Baghdasaryan on LinkedIn

Related episodes:

• “[SaaS Series] Building the Future of Voice AI With Kwin Kramer” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[SaaS & WordPress Series] Powering Membership Success: Tools and Tactics With Blair Williams” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[SaaS Series] Revolutionizing Online Forms and Productivity With Aytekin Tank of Jotform” on the Inspired Insider Podcast

Quotable moments:

• “I think we were the pioneers of AI-powered noise cancellation.”
• “Now I can proudly say that Krisp is a multi-technology, multi-product company.”
• “It’s super important for a startup to have the right product for the right time.”
• “Real time is important, so think about a solution which adds latency, and I sound not natural.”
• “It’s a matter of execution if you can show that you can build stuff.”

Action steps:

1. Build products that reduce friction instantly: Creating tools that deliver immediate, tangible value increases user adoption and long-term engagement.
2. Expand beyond a single feature early: Diversifying capabilities protects your product from being replaced by built-in platform alternatives.
3. Validate timing before scaling: Ensuring your solution aligns with market readiness helps avoid wasted effort and accelerates growth.
4. Adopt an API-first approach when possible: Offering flexible integration options allows partners to deliver your technology directly to their users.
5. Prioritize resilience within your startup culture: Strengthening your team’s ability to adapt quickly positions your company to stay competitive in fast-moving markets.

Episode Transcript

Intro: 00:15

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 00:22

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, Founder of InspiredInsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today is no different. I have Arto Minasyan. He’s the co-founder of Krisp.ai and 10Web.io. and Arto, it’s not always frequent that I’ve used the product that the founders come on.

Krisp, I use regularly, it’s great. Actually, my co-founder, John Corcoran, just did a talk to an EO group. And you know, we launch our own podcast. So he made everyone before the event download the Krisp app onto their phone. I haven’t told you this so that they can record an interview using Krisp on their phone. And so thanks for what you do. Thanks for what you created. And it’s definitely powering a lot of really cool relationships in conversations. 

Before I formally introduce Arto, I want to mention a couple other episodes of the podcast people should check out, since we’re going to go and talk about AI and specifically voice AI. In this episode, I had Kwin Kramer, a CEO and Co-founder of Daily. They’re a leading real time video platform that provides APIs for integrating audio, video, and AI into apps. Check out the episode. Fascinating. 

Also, Blair Williams, because what Arto created with 10Web.io is really helping make it easier for people to build sites on WordPress and Blair Williams I had on. He is owner of Caseproof, and it’s really the company behind some of the industry leading WordPress plugins. If you’ve heard of or used MemberPress, PrettyLinks, Easy Affiliate, WishList, Member, Member Mouse, and more, that’s what he’s behind. So check that out. And many more on InspiredInsider.com. 

This episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25, we help businesses give to and we help them connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. We do that in a few ways. One, we’re an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast. We do the strategy, accountability and the full execution and production. Number two, we’re an easy button for a company’s corporate gifting. We make gifting staying top of mind to clients, partners, prospects, even staff. Simple, easy and affordable.

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So if you have questions, you can go to Rise25.com. Email us at [email protected]. We’re kind of the easy button and secret weapon behind some of these companies, helping them build amazing relationships. So check it out. 

I am excited to introduce Arto. I mentioned co-founder of Krisp.ai and 10Web.io, two successful VC backed startups that collectively raised $28 million and achieved profitability. He manages teams of around 300 professionals across both companies and really helps drive innovation. And under his guidance, Krisp was honored as one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2020. If you remember listening to this during Covid, everyone was on Zoom. 

Everyone was on a, you know, platform to communicate virtually with people. And when you and I had Krisp before Zoom before Covid, but it basically helps so that it takes out all the background noise that’s going on. If your dog’s barking and you want to be on a Zoom call, you got to install Krisp, right? And they have B2B and B2C as well. So they were honored as TIME’s Best Inventions of 2020. 10Web AI website builder successfully generated over 1 million websites. So I’m excited to dig into this. Thanks for joining me.

Arto Minasyan: 04:47

Thanks, Jeremy, for inviting me.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:49

Just start off with Krisp And what you do. I’m going to pull up the website as you’re talking.

Arto Minasyan: 04:56

Yeah. As you mentioned, we started from noise cancellation in 2017. I think we were the pioneers of AI powered noise cancellation. Initially we thought that. It would be hard to build a company on top of one feature, but we decided to build an application which would work horizontally with all conferencing apps.

So it’s basically a virtual microphone. You choose it in Zoom, in Teams, in Google Meet anywhere, and it just works out of the box. And in 2020, it went viral and allowed us to scale the company because everyone was on Zoom during the Covid times. But like one thing that we realized all big companies, all the platforms are going to build the noise cancellation feature and provide it for free. Maybe not at that quality.

Maybe it wouldn’t work for all use cases for all people, but still, it would be hard for us to grow the company just by having one feature. So we started working on several things inside the company, and now I can proudly say that Krisp is a multi-technology, multi-product company. So one of our main products is called AI Meeting Assistant, which provides transcription, recording, meeting notes and all that it does on device. So it’s very secure, very high effective platform. And it doesn’t require any third party board joining the meeting.

And it also accumulates all companies meeting data in one like workplace. And also it has all the cool features on voice stuff. So it has noise cancellation which can allow users to remove our background noises. It has inbound noise cancellation that the user can cancel out the noises coming from the other side. And we just brought a technology called AI accent conversion, which allows people, let’s say like me, who have accent in English basically to sound more neutral in American English.

Right. And the platform is growing. And we also have like the other product specifically built for call centers. Basically, we bring all the technologies for the call center agents to make them productive. And we also have a product for developers. So any other third party company can build their voice AI solution based on our technologies. And we have like RingCentral, Discord, and many others using our product. And I would say also the current very popular AI companies also using Krisp. I can give their names, but like they do so which is like I would say in a way, we are also powering this voice revolution. What’s happening in the industry?

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:02

Yeah, we could see a lot of these names here. All names we’ve heard. There’s Sketchers on here. Autodesk, Siemens. You know, I’m curious in the beginning because you obviously became more widely known in 2020. But you started this back in 2017. So three years. So I’m curious about the journey of B2B versus B2C, your go to market and, and kind of the evolution of that with Krisp.

Arto Minasyan: 08:32

Yeah. Our initial idea was to do like fully B2B. So we basically provide technology to other platforms. But then we realized that we need to have some kind of marketing and then like the best marketing is a product itself, right? If you can bring it to the users, they can start playing with the technology, start using it.

They will basically go and champion the product inside the companies. That was our hypothesis. So we launched our app in 2018. Actually it became like a product of the year on Product Hunt. It also was quite a success. But like it still was very hard for us to grow business before like the Covid hit and everyone became like online and on Zoom. 

Like one thing that we realized, it’s super important for a startup to have the right product for the right time. And I think it’s usually the formula of success if you are behind the timing or ahead of the time, usually can’t get big enough. Like if you have the right timing and right product, you can grow organically to the big numbers.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 09:48

Yeah. I’m curious, at what point do you start charging? Was that from the beginning?

Arto Minasyan: 09:54

I think no, we started for free. It was for free for a year from 2018 to 2019. And then we decided, okay, we have a couple of thousand users. What if we introduce a paid plan? And surprisingly, some people, I could even recall the day it was 12th June of 2019. So we realized that some people are ready to pay to have like unlimited noise cancellation. And then we introduced the B2B plan, I think the beginning of 2020.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 10:32

Yeah, I remember or so I had the founder of Jotform on and we were talking about this, and I think they’ve grown to like 25 million users. But, you know, I’m like, it’s expensive to have a free plan. Like, how do you do that? Right? Because he’s a forever free plan, you know?

And obviously people upgrade, you know, then they have to pay. How did you decide on which features to that would be in kind of like the Pro version?

Arto Minasyan: 11:01

That’s a great question. So we used to be on freemium model. So we used to have a free plan until recently. I think we changed from freemium to trial a month ago or so pretty recently. Yeah.

So the idea was basically to give everything in free plan with limited usage. So users basically can keep using free plan till the point that they’re ready to upgrade. But then we made a decision to move to the trial because our product, in essence is a business productivity tool, right, so people are making business calls. They are becoming more productive with this tool. So why shouldn’t they pay for this, right.

That’s why we are giving everything in free trial for two weeks, actually for a week. And then based on if user likes the product, they can upgrade. Otherwise we just churn. I think for B2B product it’s much more likely to provide it in trial model rather than freemium.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 12:16

Yeah. I mean you could take a look here’s you know, Jotform’s pricing base they have free like a free forever. I’m like that costs you real money, right? I mean, storage and customer support and all those things. You know, but they kept it. It’s like it helped them build the product or the, you know, the word of mouth and everything like that. 

I’m curious what was the evolution of the features, right? Obviously it was noise cancellation and then you figured, you know what? We can’t. Someone’s going to just build this into their system and they’re not going to need us anymore. And then you started creating, you know, some other features, right? 

What was the first feature you, you know, now it’s got a number of features here, right. We talked about noise cancellation, it’s got the accent conversion which is really cool. I don’t know if you know I’m sure call centers use this, but I don’t know if the regular users know like this is a thing on there. And then you have the AI meeting notes. It syncs with CRM. 

What was the next? You have to choose something. What was the next thing feature you built because you’re like, we’re worried someone’s going to knock off this noise cancellation.

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