When your company is built on the power of AI and automation, you have incredibly high standards for the technology you use internally. Braintrust, a company that uses AI to streamline hiring, found itself in a tough spot. Their own product was a model of efficiency, yet their sales team was stuck with a clunky, slow process that required too much manual work. They knew there had to be a better way to operate. Their search led them to a solution that mirrored their own company’s philosophy: using smart automation, like AI-powered workflows, to handle repetitive tasks so people can focus on high-value activities. Here’s how Braintrust aligned their sales stack with their company DNA.
What is Braintrust?
Braintrust is an end-to-end AI recruiting tool that instantly matches you with qualified candidates and does the first round interview for you.
Company size: ~50 employees
Two Companies, One Name: Clearing Up the Confusion
If you’ve ever searched for Braintrust, you might have noticed two different companies pop up. It can be a bit confusing, so let's set the record straight. While they share a name, they serve completely different purposes. One is a platform designed for AI developers to build and monitor their products, while the other is an AI-powered tool for hiring teams to find and screen top talent. Understanding the difference is key, especially when you’re looking for a solution to help scale your team. We’ll break down each company so you can see exactly what they do and which one is right for your business needs.
Braintrust for AI Developers (braintrust.dev)
First up is the Braintrust found at braintrust.dev. This platform is built for a technical audience—specifically, the developers and engineers who are creating AI products. Think of it as a specialized toolkit for the people behind the curtain, making sure the AI you use every day works correctly. Its main goal is to help these teams observe, test, and improve their AI applications from development all the way to production. This version of Braintrust isn't for recruiting or sales teams; it's for the tech experts who need to ensure their AI models are performing at their best, delivering quality results, and operating efficiently.
Core Purpose: Building Quality AI Products
The core mission of this Braintrust is to help teams build high-quality AI products and get them to market faster. AI software can fail in unique ways that traditional software doesn't, so it requires a different kind of monitoring. This platform provides the tools to watch for those specific failures and fix them quickly. It’s all about maintaining the integrity and performance of AI systems. For developers, this means having a reliable way to track everything from cost and speed to the overall quality of their AI's output, ensuring the final product is both effective and dependable for end-users.
Key Features: Observability and Evals
Braintrust for developers offers two main features: Observability and Evals (Evaluations). Observability gives teams a clear view of what their AI is doing in the real world, allowing them to track performance and get alerts if something goes wrong. Evals helps teams define what a "good" AI should look like before it's even released. This feature lets them test different AI prompts, compare various models, and automatically catch potential problems during the development phase. Together, these tools create a comprehensive system for building and maintaining top-tier AI applications.
Founder's Philosophy and Origin
This platform was created by founder and CEO Ankur Goyal. His vision was to build an end-to-end platform specifically for the unique challenges of developing AI applications. Recognizing that AI requires a different approach to quality assurance than traditional software, he designed Braintrust to provide the specialized tools needed for this new frontier of technology. The company’s philosophy is rooted in empowering developers to ship better AI products with more confidence, knowing they have a robust system in place to monitor and evaluate performance every step of the way.
Braintrust for Hiring Teams (usebraintrust.com)
Now, let's talk about the Braintrust at usebraintrust.com. This is the AI recruiting tool that helps companies find, screen, and hire qualified candidates faster. Unlike its developer-focused namesake, this platform is designed for HR departments, hiring managers, and team leads—anyone who needs to build a great team. It uses AI to streamline the early stages of the hiring process, which are often the most time-consuming. By automating tasks like initial screening, it frees up your team to focus on connecting with the best-fit candidates, making the entire hiring cycle more efficient and effective.
Braintrust AIR: AI-Powered Recruiting
The star of this platform is Braintrust AIR, an AI tool that can cut the time it takes to hire someone by more than 50%. It works by conducting the first round of interviews for you through automated video screenings. This is a game-changer for busy teams, especially in sales, where scaling quickly is often a top priority. Automating these initial steps is similar to how sales teams use AI-powered workflows to handle repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on high-value activities like building relationships and closing deals. Braintrust AIR ensures you only spend time with the most qualified candidates.
The Braintrust Talent Network
Beyond its AI screening tool, Braintrust also connects organizations with a network of highly skilled technical talent. This isn't just a massive database of resumes; it's a curated community focused on finding the best people for strategic projects and innovation. Whether you need to hire for a full-time role or find an expert for a specific project, the network provides access to vetted professionals. This combination of smart automation and a high-quality talent pool makes it a powerful resource for companies looking to grow their teams with top-tier talent without getting bogged down in the hiring process.
Which Braintrust Teams Use Mixmax?
- Sales development representatives (SDRs)
- Account executives (AEs)
- Account managers (AMs)
- Sales leadership
- Customer support (CSMs)
What Problem Did Braintrust Need to Solve?
As Braintrust expanded, their existing tools, particularly Outreach, began to show limitations.
Usability issues, lag, and the need for manual data entry into Salesforce were slowing down their sales process. The sales team needed a solution that was not only scalable but also intuitive and seamlessly integrated with their existing systems.
What Braintrust Aimed to Achieve
🟡 Scalability: Support a growing and dynamic team of 30+ people.
🟡 Usability: Enhance user experience and reduce manual tasks and context switching.
🟡 Integration: Ensure data hygiene (no duplicates) with a native integration with Salesforce and Gmail.
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How Mixmax Provided the Solution
In their quest for a better solution, Braintrust discovered Mixmax. The transition was driven by the need to overcome the challenges they faced with Outreach. Mixmax's seamless integration with Gmail and Salesforce, along with its user-friendly interface, made it the perfect fit for Braintrust’s needs.
Favorite features
✅ Gmail integration: Allowed the team to perform all actions directly from their Gmail inbox, eliminating the need for multiple logins.
✅ Salesforce integration: Automated data synchronization, removing the need for manual entries and ensuring up-to-date information.
✅ Email enhancements: Tools such as CTA buttons, polls, and email templates enhanced the team’s email campaigns and engagement.
“The team loves using CTAs to book a meeting. It's been really successful for us instead of just having an ugly link posted.” |
✅ Multichannel sequences: Enabled the team to create and manage sequences across email, LinkedIn, and SMS, ensuring a comprehensive outreach strategy.
✅ AI Compose: Helped the team save time by drafting and polishing cold emails with AI.
✅ Automated rules & triggers: Automations within Mixmax help the teams do more with less, making sure nothing falls through the cracks.
✅ Templates: The ability for sales leadership to create templates has been a huge time-saver and has helped Braintrust align their messaging across all teams.
“When our team had no-shows on their calls, we'd often forget to go into Salesforce to log it. So I built out a rule in Mixmax around no-shows. Now, if there’s a cancellation, the call automatically gets pushed back into Salesforce.” |
Automating Outreach with AI-Powered Workflows
Braintrust is a company built on the power of AI and automation. Their own product, Braintrust AIR, helps companies hire faster by using AI to conduct the first round of interviews. It automates tasks like creating interview questions, sending invites, and even scoring candidates, which can reduce hiring time by more than 50%. This deep understanding of automation means they have incredibly high standards for the tools they use for their own internal processes, especially for their sales team’s outreach.
Given their expertise in building efficient systems, it's no surprise the Braintrust team sought the same level of sophistication for their sales process. They needed a tool that could automate outreach without losing the personal touch. This is where Mixmax's AI-powered workflows became essential. By automating repetitive tasks and triggering actions based on prospect engagement, Mixmax allowed the Braintrust sales team to focus on building relationships rather than getting bogged down in manual processes. It mirrored the same efficiency they provide to their own customers, making it a perfect fit for their tech stack.
Key benefits
- Ease of setup: Simplified processes and template creation.
- Enhanced engagement: Increased interaction with prospects and clients.
- Improved workflow: Faster and more efficient sales operations.
“The teams love how easy it is to set up templates, and our SDRs use Mixmax Sequences all the time. So just the ease of setup where they do it once and then never have to think about it again has been incredibly helpful.” |
The Results: A Look at Braintrust's Success
The implementation of Mixmax transformed Braintrust’s sales operations. The seamless integration and user-friendly features led to significant improvements in efficiency and engagement.
Key outcomes
🟣 High adoption and usage among all sales teams due to ease of use
🟣 Time savings thanks to the elimination of manual tasks such as rescheduling meetings, data entry, and writing emails from scratch.
🟣 Improved efficiency since all sales processes can be completed through Gmail instead of the sales engagement platform’s web app.
🟣 Increased prospect and client interaction during campaigns and events, especially with the help of Mixmax Polls & Surveys.
“Our entire SDR team and two reps requested using Mixmax, and the team who previously was boycotting Outreach switched over to Mixmax too.” |
Thinking of pulling the Mixmax trigger?
Braintrust’s journey with Mixmax is a testament to how the right tools can drive significant improvements in sales operations. The ability to perform all tasks from the inbox, the powerful Salesforce integration, and the use of email enhancements like CTA buttons and polls streamlined their workflow.
As a result, Braintrust’s sales team could focus more on engaging with prospects and clients and less on administrative tasks.
Book a demo to find out how Mixmax can enhance your revenue team’s workflow.
Frequently Asked Questions
Wait, there are two companies called Braintrust? Which one uses Mixmax? Yes, it can be a little confusing! This case study focuses on the Braintrust that is an AI-powered recruiting platform, the one found at usebraintrust.com. They help companies find and screen qualified candidates more efficiently. The other Braintrust is a tool for AI developers and is not the company featured here.
What was the main reason Braintrust switched from their old sales tool to Mixmax? The Braintrust team was struggling with a sales tool that was slow and disconnected from their other systems. This created a lot of friction, forcing them to manually enter data into Salesforce and constantly switch between different applications. They chose Mixmax because it integrates directly into their Gmail inbox and Salesforce, creating a single, seamless workspace that eliminated those frustrating manual steps.
How did Mixmax's AI-powered workflows specifically help the Braintrust team? As a company that builds AI automation tools, Braintrust has very high standards for efficiency. They used Mixmax's AI-powered workflows to automate the small, repetitive tasks that can eat up a salesperson's day. For example, they set up a rule that automatically logs a "no-show" in Salesforce if a prospect cancels a meeting. This ensures their data is always accurate without anyone having to remember to do it manually.
Which Mixmax features made the biggest day-to-day difference for their sales team? The team saw the most immediate impact from features that simplified their daily routine. The direct Gmail integration was a game-changer, as it allowed them to manage all their sales activities without ever leaving their inbox. They also found great success with easy-to-build templates for consistent messaging and using call-to-action buttons in emails to make scheduling meetings simple for prospects.
What were the most significant results Braintrust saw after implementing Mixmax? The biggest win for Braintrust was the immediate and widespread adoption across their teams. Even reps who were resistant to their previous tool quickly embraced Mixmax because it was so easy to use. This led to major time savings by cutting out manual data entry and other administrative work, which in turn made their entire sales process much more efficient and effective.
Key Takeaways
- Prioritize deep inbox and CRM integration: Braintrust’s success shows that a sales platform living directly within your inbox and syncing automatically with your CRM is a game-changer. This approach eliminates context switching and manual data entry, saving time and keeping your data accurate.
- Use AI-powered workflows for repetitive tasks: By automating actions like logging no-shows or creating multi-step sequences, Braintrust’s team ensured nothing fell through the cracks. This allows sellers to focus their energy on strategic outreach and building client relationships instead of on administrative work.
- A user-friendly tool drives team adoption: A powerful platform is only effective if your team actually uses it. Braintrust’s high adoption rate proves that an intuitive interface is essential for improving your team's efficiency and getting the most out of your investment.
