Manny Medina's New Startup: Paying AI Agents | Outreach Founder

The Rise of AI Agent Infrastructure

As the utilization of AI agents expands, a significant trend is becoming apparent: the emergence of startups focused on providing the essential infrastructure that enables businesses to deploy and manage a workforce of automated bots.

Manny Medina, previously recognized as the founder and former CEO of Outreach – a sales automation firm valued at $4.4 billion – has recently introduced a new venture named Paid. This launch was reported exclusively to TechCrunch.

Introducing Paid: A Platform for Agent Monetization

Paid does not directly develop AI agents. Instead, it provides a platform designed to facilitate profitable compensation for these agents. The company announced on Monday a pre-seed funding round of €10 million (approximately $11 million), led by prominent European investors EQT Ventures, Sequoia, and GTMFund.

The Genesis of Paid

Medina conceived the idea for Paid following extensive discussions with numerous startups building agentic platforms. A recurring theme emerged during these conversations. “A common challenge they faced was determining appropriate pricing strategies,” Medina explained to TechCrunch.

Rethinking Software Pricing for the Age of AI Agents

The core principle behind Paid is that traditional software pricing models are ill-suited for AI agents. Charging per user or per seat – a common practice with software like Microsoft Office – is not viable when a single employee can manage multiple agents.

Furthermore, agents may operate autonomously, requiring no human oversight. This fundamentally alters the economics of software licensing.

Beyond Usage-Based Billing

Companies developing AI agents also find it difficult to adopt usage-based billing, similar to the SaaS model. If agents function effectively, they effectively “assume entire roles,” according to Medina.

Customers of AI agents are not interested in paying for each individual task performed by the agent, especially if they are unaware of all the actions taken. They prefer to pay for the outcomes achieved, mirroring the compensation of a human employee.

For example, if an agent is employed in the insurance sector and success is measured by policy renewal rates, the client will want to pay for renewals, not each email dispatched by the agent.

Managing Variable Costs and Optimizing Margins

Simultaneously, the operational costs associated with AI agents are variable, fluctuating based on the number of Large Language Model (LLM) tokens required for training and task execution.

“The key question was: how can we empower these startups to price their services effectively?” Medina stated. “They require the flexibility to experiment with different pricing structures for various clients and the ability to accurately track their profit margins.”

Paid aims to provide the tools necessary for agentic companies to navigate this new economic landscape and ensure sustainable growth.

The Convergence of Billing and Human Resources in the Age of AI Agents

Emerging companies utilizing AI agents often lack established systems for effective billing and renewal processes. Paid empowers agentic startups to establish pricing structures – whether static or dynamic – with a focus on achieving sustainable profitability.

Crucially, the platform also monitors agent performance, enabling startups to accurately assess their return on investment.

This represents a novel integration, akin to combining the functionalities of Zuora, a leading SaaS renewal billing solution, with SuccessFactors, a prominent SaaS HR management platform, but specifically tailored for the AI agent landscape.

Paid is strategically targeting startups, differentiating itself from larger corporations such as Salesforce and Microsoft, which are also developing agentic platforms. Currently, the company reports having three beta customers: Logic.app, 11x, VidLab7, Artisan, and HappyRobot.

The Shifting Role of Human Labor

“Agents are increasingly taking over specific roles previously held by human employees, not necessarily entire jobs, but distinct functions within them,” explains Medina.

This philosophy is also reflected in the company’s internal operations, where AI tools are leveraged for product development. The initial product demonstrations were created using platforms like v0, Replit, and Lovable.

“The current environment for building a company is exceptionally exciting. With just two engineers, we were able to construct the entire platform within a single month. This rapid development is directly attributable to our reliance on AI,” he stated.

Medina brings significant experience in company building to this venture. Previously at Microsoft, and a long-standing figure in the Seattle technology community, he spearheaded Outreach’s growth from inception in 2011 to a workforce of 800 and $250 million in annual recurring revenue before stepping down as CEO in September.

He subsequently relinquished his position as executive chairman in March, though he continues to serve on the board. Both Medina and Paid are now headquartered in London.

• Paid focuses on profitable billing and renewals for AI agent startups.
• The platform tracks agent output to validate ROI.
• It’s a combination of billing and HR management tools for the AI era.