/Companies

UserGems

YC S14

Austria, AT · Founded 2015 · 100 employees · 8 known investors

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UserGems is an AI platform that identifies in-market companies and buyers through contact-level signals and custom scoring, then orchestrates personalized outbound campaigns and account-based marketing at scale. It serves sales and marketing teams including ABM marketers, SDRs, and revenue operations professionals.

Also known as ShelfFlip, Inc. · User Gems

Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (S14)

UserGems was founded in 2015 by Christian Kletzl and Stephan Kletzl.

CKChristian Kletzl
Christian KletzlCEO & Co-Founder
SKStephan Kletzl
Stephan KletzlCo-Founder and CTO / DPO
KP
Klaus PlankensteinerLead Developer
EC
Emily CiavolaSenior Talent Acquisition \u0026 HR Manager

Investors · 8

Funding

SEC filings, press & company announcements

$20M disclosed across 1 of 3 rounds · 2021

Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.

Company profile

researched Aug 2026

UserGems sells software that positions itself as an "AI command center" for outbound sales and account-based marketing. The platform ingests first-, second- and third-party data and offers 30+ native signals — including job changes, contact-level intent, website visits, hiring, M&A and 10-K filings — alongside customer-supplied data such as CRM records, call transcripts, product usage, form submissions, event attendance and NPS scores. A research agent can be configured to find additional custom signals from public sources and to analyze call transcripts and CRM data for closed-lost insights.

On top of this data layer, the company's AI agent product, Gem-E, evaluates 600+ ICP criteria and signals and learns from a customer's closed-won history to produce account and contact scores that the company describes as transparent and editable. UserGems also derives ICP definitions, personas and value propositions from a customer's opportunity and customer records, maps accounts into buying stages with customizable weights and automatic decay, and identifies and enriches buying-group contacts, creating new records in the CRM.

Execution is handled by orchestration features that generate personalized outbound email, surface insights to reps through a Chrome extension inside their existing tools, sync high-intent contacts into LinkedIn, Google and Meta ad audiences, and report on TAM progression and pipeline generated. The product is designed to operate within existing stacks rather than as a standalone interface, integrating with Salesforce, HubSpot and Microsoft Dynamics CRMs, HubSpot and Marketo marketing automation, and Outreach, Salesloft and Gong Engage sales engagement tools. A model context protocol (MCP) integration lets users build and run GTM campaigns from Claude or ChatGPT.

Founding story

Christian Kletzl, an Austrian who was living in Chicago after an MBA at Northwestern, recruited his twin brother Stephan, then working for PwC in Europe, to move to the U.S. and start a company. Their first idea, ShelfFlip, an e-commerce marketplace for pre-owned goods, got them into Y Combinator's Winter 2015 batch but was scrapped during the program. They then built SmartHires, a referral network for startups within the same investment portfolio. Part of the SmartHires product tracked when a key contact moved from one company to another, and batchmates showed more interest in that capability than in SmartHires itself, which led to the pivot into UserGems.

Business model

B2B SaaS sold to revenue teams, layered on top of a customer's existing CRM, marketing automation, sales engagement and advertising tools. Deployments include dedicated Customer Success, RevOps and AI specialists for implementation, enablement and campaign recommendations. The company advertises a money-back guarantee: if a customer does not generate at least 1x revenue ROI (framed as $100K revenue on $100K spend), it offers a refund.

Software subscription tied to customer spend, with a stated refund guarantee if revenue generated does not reach at least 1x the amount spent.

Traction

Roughly 60 mid-market and enterprise customers reported in July 2021 and about 90 by October 2021. The website cites company-reported outcomes including median 47x pipeline ROI and 11x revenue ROI, Gem-E sequence reply rates of 6-20%, and customer results such as CaptivateIQ building $1.3M in pipeline in 10 weeks with 15 opportunities, Quickbase reporting 5x leads and 3x pipeline, and Docebo generating 54 enterprise opportunities in a quarter. A 2026 event drew 150+ B2B GTM leaders. These figures are vendor-published and not independently verified.

Latest developments

Recent company announcements include the UserGems MCP, which exposes the platform inside Claude and ChatGPT, unveiled at the Humans of GTM event in San Francisco (Jun 2026); a "Build vs. Buy" framework guide and related video featuring co-founder Christian Kletzl (Jul 2026); the Brains of GTM webinar series launched Mar 2026 with episodes featuring Snowflake and Cordial; and a Feb 2026 report that Gem-E achieves 11-20% reply rates by stacking signals across email sequences.

▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies

Market position

At its 2021 Series A, UserGems was described as competing on one side with prospecting and sales-intelligence platforms such as ZoomInfo and LinkedIn, and on the other with predictive sales vendors including People.ai, LeadIQ and 6sense. The current website markets directly against 6sense with switching guides and comparison content, and differentiates on contact-level rather than account-only intent.

Stated differentiators are contact-level (rather than account-level) intent, scoring that is transparent and user-editable rather than a black box, unification of signals and orchestration in a single system instead of stitched-together point tools, the ability to bring in customer-owned data and signals, delivery inside tools reps already use, and a revenue-based money-back guarantee. Its original wedge was tracking when past customers and champions change jobs, on the premise that newly hired executives spend 70% of their budget within their first 100 days.

Technology

AI/ML applied to data mapping and signal aggregation. The system processes publicly available sources such as web searches and news articles to detect job changes and other events, unifies them with customer first-party data, and applies a scoring model over 600+ criteria trained on the customer's own closed-won outcomes. Gem-E agents perform research, scoring, list building, personalization and orchestration, with continuous learning from opportunity and closed-won feedback. Distribution surfaces include a Chrome extension and an MCP server for Claude and ChatGPT.

Go-to-market

Direct sales with demo requests and an interactive demo on the website, supported by customer case studies, comparison and switching guides against incumbent ABM vendors, a news hub, blog, webinar series (Brains of GTM) and in-person leadership events (Humans of GTM, UserGems Insiders). Post-sale, dedicated CS/RevOps/AI staff drive adoption inside the customer's existing tools.

B2B revenue teams running outbound, account-based or multi-threaded motions — ABM marketers, SDRs, AEs and RevOps. Early customer base was mid-market and enterprise; named customers across sources include Procore, Medallia, UserTesting, Sisense, BrightTALK, iWave, Docebo, Quickbase, CaptivateIQ, Mimecast and HubSpot.

Geography

TechCrunch described the company as based in San Francisco at the time of its 2021 Series A; company events referenced on the site are held in San Francisco. The founders are Austrian, with the co-founder previously working for PwC in Europe. The platform advertises GDPR and CCPA compliance and SOC II security.

History

After two pivots from the Y Combinator Winter 2015 batch, UserGems emerged from stealth in July 2021 alongside a $2.4 million seed round, followed in October 2021 by a $20 million Series A led by Craft Ventures that brought total funding to $22.4 million. The company was recognized in the 2023 SMBTech 50 list. It launched a Signal Platform in July 2024, the Gem-E AI outbound agent in January 2025, and the UserGems MCP in mid-2026, alongside recurring content and event programs such as Brains of GTM and Humans of GTM.

Risks & controversies

Most performance claims (ROI multiples, reply rates, pipeline figures, customer results) originate from UserGems' own website and are not independently verified in the sources provided. The company operates in a crowded category against much larger and better-capitalized incumbents such as ZoomInfo, LinkedIn, 6sense and People.ai. Its data model depends on processing publicly available personal and employment information, which carries data-privacy exposure; the company cites GDPR, CCPA and SOC II compliance in response. No funding has been disclosed in the sources since the October 2021 Series A.

Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.

Key figures

latest reported
Annual job-change rate in tracked databasesOct 202120%
CustomersOct 202190 customers
Gem-E sequence reply rate (company-reported)Jan 20266-20% reply rates versus a stated industry average of 1-2%
ICP criteria and signals evaluated by scoring modelJan 2026600 signals/criteria
Median pipeline ROI (company-reported)Jan 202647 x pipeline
Native signals supportedJan 202630 signals
Total funding raisedOct 2021$22.4M
Typical time to value (company-reported)Jan 20263-4 weeks after connecting CRM and data sources

Company-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.

Founder mafia

2 people who came through UserGems went on to found or lead other companies.

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Companies working in the same space as UserGems.

Timeline · 8

launches, deals, and filings
Jun 2026
UserGems announces UserGems MCP at Humans of GTM event

At its San Francisco Humans of GTM event attended by 150+ B2B GTM leaders, UserGems unveiled its MCP, which makes the platform usable from Claude and ChatGPT; customer results from Docebo, Mimecast and HubSpot were presented.

source ↗

May 2026
UserGems announces Humans of GTM leadership event for B2B GTM leaders

source ↗

Mar 2026
UserGems launches 'Brains of GTM' webinar series

source ↗

Jan 2025
Launch of Gem-E, an AI outbound agent

UserGems introduced Gem-E, an AI outbound agent powered by buying signals to generate pipeline.

source ↗

Jul 2024
Introducing UserGems Signal Platform

UserGems announced an enhanced platform with new features aimed at helping sales and marketing teams build pipeline with signal-based strategies.

source ↗

May 2023
UserGems named to 2023 SMBTech 50 list

UserGems was honored in the 2023 SMBTech 50 list recognizing startups serving SMBs.

source ↗

Oct 2021
UserGems raises $20M Series A

Series A led by Craft Ventures with new investors Battery Ventures and Tiger Global plus existing backer Uncork Capital and angels, bringing total raised to $22.4 million. Funds earmarked for product and hiring.

$20M source ↗

Jul 2021
UserGems raises $2.4M seed round and emerges from stealth

UserGems announced $2.4 million in seed funding from Uncork Capital, Craft Ventures and other investors, emerging from stealth with a platform that flags when past buyers change jobs.

$2.4M source ↗

Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.

Legal entities · 1

corporate structure
ShelfFlip, Inc.

In the news

▸Research sources · 8

primary sources listed

8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.

Frequently asked questions

What does UserGems do?
UserGems is a B2B go-to-market platform that unifies buying signals, AI account scoring and outbound/ABM orchestration.
Who founded UserGems?
UserGems was founded by Christian Kletzl, Stephan Kletzl in 2015.
Who are UserGems's investors?
UserGems's investors include Craft Ventures, i5invest, Y Combinator, Battery Ventures, The Fund, Tiger Global Management, Tom and Harry Ventures LP, Uncork Capital.
How much funding has UserGems raised?
UserGems has disclosed $20M raised across 1 of its 3 known rounds.
Where is UserGems headquartered?
UserGems is headquartered in Austria, AT.