The CEO Who Destroyed His Company in 24 Hours

The Rise and Fall of Artesian Builds: A Tale of Social Media Marketing and Bankruptcy

Artesian Builds initially started as a 3D printing prop seller for video games.
In 2017, they expanded to selling full PC builds and incorporated as Artesian Builds in 2018.
The CEO, Noah Katz, secured over one million dollars in investment from his family, leading to significant growth in the business.
Through effective social media marketing, Artesian Builds grew from a couple million dollars in turnover to over 20 million dollars.
Noah Katz's obsession with becoming a famous social media influencer in the industry led to the downfall of the business.
The highly competitive nature of the industry, with thin profit margins, meant standing out was essential.
Artesian Builds capitalized on the trend of social media marketing, particularly on Twitch, by recruiting numerous streamers as affiliates.
Unlike other companies, Artesian Builds offered affiliate deals to both smaller and bigger creators, giving them a larger market share.

Noah Katz saw himself as an equal to big streamers and sponsored them not just for marketing, but also to be seen with them.
The company appeared successful on the outside, but internally it was chaotic and poorly managed.
Gamers Nexus investigated and found that the east and west coast warehouses were working against each other.
The west coast studio had significantly more employees, yet they were building and shipping far fewer PCs compared to the east coast.
The return rate for PC builds was alarmingly high on the west coast, indicating poor quality control.
The east and west branches operated under different management, with Noah Katz running the west coast branch.
Noah Katz seemed more interested in becoming famous as a streamer than in running the business effectively.
Underhanded marketing tactics were used, such as pressuring streamers to raid and host the Artesian Builds Twitch channel and encouraging viewers to gift subscriptions to improve the PC builds.

Creator disqualified from giveaway for not generating enough sales.
Creator publicly expresses disappointment and reveals negative experiences with the company.
Multiple creators share their negative experiences with Artesian Builds.
Noah, founder of Artesian Builds, receives backlash for disqualifying creators and talking down about their analytics.
Intel, a partner of Artesian Builds, publicly addresses the situation.
Noah attempts to apologize on Twitter, but his tweets are seen as non-apologies.
Artesian Builds faces further trouble with their business license being suspended due to tax evasion.

Artesian Builds' positive public perception was destroyed after a live stream and subsequent Twitter meltdown by CEO Noah Katz.
Many partners, ambassadors, and content creators abandoned the company to avoid association with the negative stigma.
Damning information, such as employee dms and internal memos, exposed the dire circumstances within the business.
Accounts were frozen, leaving employees unpaid and unable to process refunds or purchase parts for customer builds.
An attempted mutiny by employees to remove Noah Katz as CEO failed, worsening the financial state of the business.
Artesian Builds filed for bankruptcy in June 2022, revealing mismanagement and financial troubles.
The company had taken in $1.4 million worth of orders but only had $900,000 worth of equipment in inventory.
Poor management, combined with a graphics card shortage, led to a backlog of builds and mounting debt.
The only solution was an influx of cash, but the business collapsed, leaving customers with no refunds or completed builds.