The CEO Who Destroyed His Company in 24 Hours

When chasing fame becomes your primary goal, what could possibly go wrong?
Gamers nexus video is great, go watch it for more in-depth details.
( • Inside the Collapse of... )
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#artesianbuilds #2022 #funny

[@andrebarbosa5374]

Really shows that some people would rather bankrupt their fucking company rather than admit that they’re wrong

[@KhorneBrzrkr]

It’s FAR more common than you know. I’d wager a huge chunk of “successful” people basically got lucky. And everything after that is trying to maintain the illusion.

[@AquaCoalaNest]

I think there is enough family-money to start a new/different one, so no surprise he didn't care.

[@lasskinn474]

@@wilmagregg3131 dude it wasn't making million dollar profit - It wasn't making a single dollar profit as it was ran by a madman who didn't quite understand how numbers worked. Also probably how they were able to get growth and be competetive in price tho.

[@bigbearkat2010]

This dude is like if Dennis Reynolds grew up in Silicon Valley instead of Philly. Massive ego, pretends to be way smarter than he actually is, no concept of consequences to others because they don't effect him personally and rich parental figure benefactor bankrolling and enabling his buttmunch behavior.

[@alexoelkers2292]

It shows how little he cared about his employees and the customers who were already waiting for their purchased PCs

[@bararobberbaron859]

I just feel really bad for the COO, who clearly worked hard, ran his team and the whole east warehouse incredibly well.

[@havenprice]

Damn i rewatched it. Less people, more PCs and less returns. Probably he was the pushing force the whole time and the ceo was just supposed to be a mouthpiece

[@sppie]

the coo now works for star forge

[@genericname2747]

​@@sppie So proud of him

[@ShawnFX]

@@sppie hope some of the east team employees also have jobs at other great companies. Such a small team but producing 10x the products the west did

[@aw98000]

@@havenprice the COO was the talent. The CEO had the money.

[@wolfieseven2360]

The image shown at 10:18 in the video, pretty much sums up his role, ambitions, and potential with the company. A cool jacket, confused look, watching someone else do the work, while he just rests his hands on the panel. Essentially just getting in the way while trying to make it look like he's helping. People like this are some of the worst, especially when they move up the hierarchy.

[@Nerdiness1985]

Those are always the people that move up.

[@Blisterdude123]

The dude literally ran around wearing a Starlord jacket. To me, that says everything about his ego.

[@IWantToStayAtYourHouse]

Screams 'nerd' to me

[@bradenharris8718]

Even hearing that name reminds me of Chris Pratt and that scene where he does that "dance off" and I get pissed. What a nerd.

[@falconeshield]

@@bradenharris8718 Just Pratt. That's a bad sign.

[@bort6414]

@@falconeshield Does the nice Christian actor with a happy family life fill you with seething rage?

[@A.Froster]

@@falconeshield People still seething about Chris Pratt for whatever reason? Lol

[@user-lx9jm1wo3h]

It should be illegal to auction items that dont even belong to them. If their computer was there on warranty work or upgrades, and they arent shipping it back or giving you the option to get it back, that product should be considered a stolen and reported to the police.

[@nwerd7584]

posession is 9/10ths of the law, unless filed as stolen.

[@ahmataevo]

@@nwerd7584 - The ability to control violent thugs with deadly weapons is 10/10th's of the law. Don't believe me? Try not paying taxes.

[@emilbovbjerg]

@@ahmataevo It isn't a maths question. Both those things can be true at once.

[@zwenkwiel816]

Not sure how it works in the US but over here in the Netherlands a bankruptcy means some executor (think it's just the government or IRS) comes in and auctions off any assets to pay off debts the company has. (And the IRS comes first)The owners of the company don't really get any say in this and I'm pretty sure trying to withhold assets from this auction is illegal. Not sure if it's at all possible to get your property back if you can prove ownership but I'm guessing it's gonna be pretty hard and would probably require expensive lawsuits and shit...

[@zwenkwiel816]

@@ahmataevo not paying taxes makes you a violent thug???

[@juances]

This is why other CEOs spend money on a PR team. He behaves like I expect every other out-of-touch-with-reality CEO to behave, except he was too much of a cheapskate to hire a person to act as his filter.

[@davidb3352]

Noah tried to be expert builder and PR rep at the same time. Fun fact: Noah was no expert. He learned his PC building from watching Linus and was one of the worst builders in terms of quality at AB. Also fun fact: Noah routinely did the thing that companies aren't supposed to do... talk about religion and politics. He told Twitcher viewers they were stupid, and constantly grandstanded about how awesome he was.

[@Tamaki742]

He has a PR team, the official company apology statement was crafted by one. BUT, he decided NOT to consult them and went ahead to make that shitty quality apology video.

[@davidb3352]

@@Tamaki742 As a megalomaniac, he's the only one that fix the *perceived* problem that he created.

[@Tamaki742]

@@davidb3352 Also funny you mentioned Linus, because Noah was so desperate to get in contact with him and creeping Kristofer Yee out in the process. Yet the first time Linus heard about him is him destroying his own company. "How have I not heard of this company before, yet they have the same amount of employees as us?"

[@btbarr16]

I literally think Noah has empathy deficit disorder. In his apology video he looked like someone that knew how a guilty or sympathetic person should look like, but has never actually felt those emotions so he couldn't even fake it correctly.

[@everlastingmedia]

I almost bought a PC from Artesian but I watched one of their live streams and it made me physically ill. Nobody with that much ego on screen is healthy and I'm a nobody and I didn't want my name associated with that. I've ended up building my own PCs for the last decade, and I have zero regrets.

[@typerightseesight]

almost fell for it. when you want a fresh start with a new company you find out they are all junk in order of first to last lol

[@korosuke1788]

You must know very little about CEOs if you think "mentality healthy" correlates with low quality. It honestly makes no sense. This dude wrecked his company for changing the raffle rules.

[@barriehannon6857]

it does acturally@@korosuke1788

[@stormisuedonym4599]

@@korosuke1788 I see the entirety of your understanding of CEOs comes from Reddit.

[@ceddavis7441]

​@@korosuke1788 no one thing assures quality, though a lack of one or more will wheigh on the product.

[@PokèMyBalls]

His COO made this company succesful even with Noah Katz being a complete idiot. That guy is skilled. Im glad he landed on his feet.

[@heyyo3725]

He thought he was being such a 'badass' when rejecting the winner😒😂

[@thatHARVguy]

And by doing so, he violated many state laws regarding raffles and lotteries.

[@miciso666]

yeah he was like who fucking cares about this bitch... intel: uhmmm jayztwocents: u fucked up. noah: what no she was a loser... she had no views. i love how intel saw this and immediatly cut ties with them...

[@es68951]

Lol he already thought he was being a ‘badass' wearing that dumbass jacket

[@helvete983]

@@thatHARVguy The wrath of butthurt twitchers is way more powerful a tool than minor state laws would ever be. Even if found guilty he'd get a small fine and be ordered to send the streamer one of his shitty PCs, and I think we all know how good quality that thing would be.

[@Amilakasun1]

@@helvete983 yeah, specially those simps.

[@ekki1993]

Something funny I read in another video back when the debacle started: An artisan is a worker in a skilled trade, especially making things by hand. An artesian is a well.

[@KhorneBrzrkr]

Yep. Gotta love when people misuse words to sound cool.

[@LordZordid]

@@KhorneBrzrkr I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't realize it and later just stuck with the name.

[@KhorneBrzrkr]

@@LordZordid Yeah, that's also a very good possibility. Shouldn't assume I guess.

[@JJtoob]

Well, that sucks.

[@rea1cyru5]

The PCs are well-built

[@YamiVT]

They lured me in as a creator by offering a "partnership" that would give steady compensation and give me tons of exposure from social media. All I got was an affiliate code, a shoutout on Twitter and thrown into a group-chat with random streamers in Twitter.

[@StreetPreacherr]

Yeah I don't think you understood. The 'partnership' is only relevant if YOU help THEM sell hardware, and lure more followers/subscribers to their social media channels... They're not going to waste any time effort helping to 'grow' your channel, they're just hoping you're channel will get popular and will eventually bring them business!

[@peterpan4038]

I wish this was the worst kind of partnership deal out there. But at least Artesian tried to make a profit by using shady business methods to sell actual products... there are "partners" that are 100% scams from the get go. For example the "not financial advice" - crowd. Artesian got the shitstorm he deserved, sadly there are many many more "partners" out there that don't.

[@tilasole3252]

That sounded like a scam, so why would you believe them? If it is too good to be true, it is. I'm surprised you even got a shout-out to be honest with you.

[@mochabearry]

@@tilasole3252 How did it sound like a scam? It’s literally the bare minimum that they offered and even then they couldn’t deliver. No where near sounding like a scam.

[@tilasole3252]

@@mochabearry [lured by offering a "partnership" that would give steady compensation and tons of exposure from social media.] For basically free? You just do a few promos or something and magically everything works out alright? You do not get something for nothing. That sounds like a scam. A promise that was never intended to be kept.

[@link77779]

Didn't recognize the guy in the thumbnail, but as soon as I saw *that* clip in the intro, I knew exactly what this was about

[@historicalhijinks3058]

The fact that they can auction off items that don't even belong to the company is one of the most horrifying things I have ever heard. It didn't belong to the company, its not an asset of the company, so the fact that the court can steal them from their owners and sell them to complete strangers, with all the personal information therein, is also terrifying.

[@KhorneBrzrkr]

That’s the legal system for you. What’s worse is that even in the few instances of some Good Samaritan buying some of those PCs to return them to the owner, it ends up being AB double dipping. They got paid to fix the PC. Now this new money will be used to clean up some of their mess. Oh, and let’s not forget the court getting a taste what with the all import fees and what not.

[@historicalhijinks3058]

​@@KhorneBrzrkr Exactly. And its weird too, because if you think of the other situations that are kind of similar, you know it wouldn't happen. Like, this is (as far as I can tell) the same thing as hiring a construction company to come to your house and do some repairs/remodeling, while you're...I dunno, Fiji or something. Not on location. That construction company gets into deep, deep shit, and go bankrupt. So they get to auction of your house to pay off their legal fees because they had 'possession' of your house in order to do repairs on it. It's manifestly absurd.

[@powerdude_dk]

@@HQbaracuda you forget that people are not only buying new PCs. They also send the PC they're currently using, in for repair or upgrade. With all their personal files like family photos but also sensitive information. And to make matters worse, anyone could probably just boot them up and login into all of their accounts if they haven't got 2 factor authentication on all of their accounts. And some of them would probably still just login without asking for 2 factor, since the PC itself is already authenticated. And no, the windows user password is not an obstacle. Anyone can look up a KZbin video on how to get into Windows. This is truly horrible.

[@pagatryx5451]

@@KhorneBrzrkr Anybody know if this is a problem with the legal system everywhere or just America? European countries often seem to have much better consumer protection, so I wonder if there laws would protect those PC's that were in for RMA.

[@KhorneBrzrkr]

@@pagatryx5451 I think it's just the US, fortunately or unfortunately. We have a saying, that the process IS the punishment. Lawyer, and litigious people in general, tend to be like that annoying younger sibling in the back seat. They aren't TECHNICALLY touching you... so they aren't actually breaking the rules. So they do what they want by liberally interpreting the law and government overreaches to compensate.

[@aethertoast4320]

The most disgusting thing is that all of the personal computer repair jobs will be stolen from people and that they actually stole thousands of pounds from an employee in a fraudulent charge back putting them in debt. It is all just vile and evil that they would be allowed to do either of those things.

[@mikeloeven]

Also anyone who had a personal computer sent in for repair or service but did not receive it back those have personal data on them. I would highly suggest anyone in this situation should contact local law enforcement where the warehouse is located and see if they cant get the items back. Afaik ownership does not transfer to the company during repair or service so it is theft at that point I would love to watch the police march into that warehouse and seize peoples machines to return to them. Its not like they dont know the location

[@Rainmotorsports]

@@mikeloeven Theft by conversion is a civil matter. Police won't be happy about people trying to waste their time.

[@blazaybla22]

@@Rainmotorsports I mean in general you’re right but there is no reason not to press a criminal fraud case, there’s a lot of smoke here that could easily be fire if forensic investigators are able to find documentation that they were intentionally deceitful on a criminal level

[@dx315]

Just remember stories like this next time some you read about some petty crime being committed by a random poor person and people are calling for them to be executed.

[@TheWarmestFuzzy]

The fact that I've watched and rewatched the gamers nexus videos is probably why the algorithm recommended this video. DAMN I'm glad it did. Loving your videos bud, instant sub.

[@GGClips]

"... just tipped 360.00 Dollars" i will never understand why some people give people with tons of money even more money, for free

[@abriellhawkins4983]

Artesian really went the "how to ruin your company speedrun" route

[@orionfire1947]

Any% Bankruptcy Speedrun World Record

[@Ehhhhhmm]

Bankruptcy%, glitchless

[@Snowburden]

When you've dreamed about fame your whole life... you might make some awful discussions. In his case, that's an understatement.

[@tammytheranger7645]

Glitchless, No RNG manipulation, Single segment run

[@jari2018]

he wanted to be famous , he is even in Europe - typical us investor type character ,rely on other to to the job and take credit

[@shadowcaptaincain]

What's even better is JayzTwoCents built Kiapiaa a better built and spec'd out PC than anything Artesian Builds would have given her. Also there are hundreds of people's PCs that were sent in for RMAs that are locked up in the warehouses with people's personal info still on them, and no one really knows what is going to happen to them. Apparently one of the buyers of the lots is going to try and triage the RMAs in order to send them back to the people who owned them.

[@purplefood1]

That's a really nice thing to do and I hope it's true

[@NomisSanguine]

@@purplefood1 It's true. Kia did an opening video of the PC she got from Jay. Also, as I recall, EVGA hooked Jay up with a tone of the components for it. He drove out to their warehouse to pick up the components - did a video on that as well.

[@purplefood1]

@@NomisSanguine Ah my bad I wasn't specific and I realise now there's a lot that could pertain to, I was mostly thinking of people who potentially were not able to get their PC back from AB though i've heard there was an attempt to return them I somehow feel they may not have tried that hard.

[@nwerd7584]

If you watch the stream with destiny and the artesian employees from like 2 days ago.. They state there was less than 5 repairs that didnt get to their owner. One of them stayed the day after the bankruptcy to send out as many as they could.. so no theres not tons sitting there, many just werent fixed and got sent back thanks to that employee

[@NomisSanguine]

@@nwerd7584 is that true for both sites? Seems to me the east coast site might do that, but not the west coast. Also, you can see a lot of WIP builds in Gamers Nexus’ video.

[@Aussiemarco]

A similar business model as Nigel O’Hara ‘department store’ in Portadown, Northern Ireland, who spent years having a glamorous website listing 91,000 items - and didn’t supply anything to people who bought items from him. I was a victim of his, but through luck I paid for my purchases with PayPal, so I got my money back a few months before he declared bankruptcy. The reality was his ‘department store’ was a tiny jewellery shop on Portadown’s High Street. A video on this scammer would be interesting!

[@eamonwright7488]

Never trust anyone from Portadown. 😊

[@mrman2415]

​@@eamonwright7488 Sound advice. Portadown is a dump

[@badgamedevreacts3855]

It's insane how cocky some people get when they think nothing bad can happen to them, as if it being a decent person is only an obligation when it benefits them.

[@kdizzle901]

It’s scary like once u reach a certain level accountability goes away

[@The2KXperience]

I loved the ending, this is definitely a perfect example of "be careful what you wish for". All he wanted was to be famous... and he got what he wanted. People will be talking about him and his company for a long, long, long time.

[@aimeeinkling]

Infamous*

[@DAGATHire]

how long is a "long, long, long time." cos.... I bet its about a few months in reality. THis guy and his shitty story will vanish within months.

[@Mediados]

There is nothing wrong with wanting to become famous. Now, there is something wrong with selling your soul to achieve it.

[@mythicalmeanderings]

Meh, I'll forget about him next week.

[@mythicalmeanderings]

@@Mediados "There is nothing wrong with wanting to become famous" It could easily be argued there is. Any kind of vanity or approval-seeking is easily picked apart. I can think of 10,000,000 better things one could dedicate their life to rather than the vapid pursuit of fame and vanity.

[@joshuaporterfield6774]

Ego is a hell of a drug and the comedown can be so incredibly harsh.

[@es68951]

Just too bad he didn’t OD

[@Peeta-wn4hh]

Ego and hubris go hand in hand.

[@SubBrief]

Love your videos. The young man will be just fine because he was playing with his parents money from the start. He has legally changed his name and ArtisanFutures (new name of company) is through bankruptcy process into auctioning assets. Don't kid yourself. He is chilling on a beach somewhere with a new legal identity.

[@armondtanz]

In the 90s in the UK. The CEO of a major high street jewelers was asked "how is your jewelry so cheap?". He responded "because its cheap crap". About 2 weeks later his company had lost £500 mil. Should be a leaderboard, im sure artesian would be top 3 of all time.

[@johnennis4586]

H Samuel?

[@armondtanz]

@@johnennis4586 are they still going? The company was ratners. Bizzare quote that lost him his entire chain of high st shops.

[@stevens1041]

That’s a famous story. Everyone should learn about that one.

[@armondtanz]

@@stevens1041 dwarfed compared to bud light 🤣🤣🤣... Although bud light is still up n running. Ratners went RIP straight away ...

[@oscartango2348]

It's always hilarious when people like Noah attempt to sound human. It's so creepily awkward, that it's almost "Zuckerberg-esque".

[@LordZordid]

When Noah Katz started a sentence with "us hu'mans" you knew something was off.

[@pumkin610]

Hello fellow humans, I'd like to be good friends with important people. I will make sushi, at my house, for the strangers who will be my friends.

[@argylemanni280]

Hard to believe Katz and Zuckerberg would have anything in common. What do you think it is, I wonder? Do they share those traits with people like Jared Kushner? Hmm. A lot to think about.

[@Sara-bk3yi]

zuckerberg esque 🤓

[@ravenID429]

@@Sara-bk3yi?

[@Carnyzzle]

Otherwise known as, "How to kill your business with a single twitch stream"

[@oz_jones]

-Video- Streaming killed the -radio- company star

[@cvbabc]

Wow Kira, this was really good! I know little about gaming PCs/Twitch/Builds, but enjoyed this nonetheless. It's the mark if a good content creator.

[@toesly]

Good job on the transitions in this video. The flow felt nice for my brain :)

[@barrymckockinner8476]

I have heard this story a few times, but I'll gladly listen again. Really hope the customers involved get their PCs or money

[@aglitchgnome]

as someone who bought a PC from them early in 2020, I'm at a loss since I was supposed to get 3 year parts warranty and customer service for at least 5 years. The only saving grace is that they shipped all of the boxes for individual parts so I guess I could RMA them if something were to happen

[@ForboJack]

No way customers will get any real money or hardware. All that remains will be sold and all of the money will go to the ones who lend Artesian Builds the most money. That will probably be banks, vendors and investors (like his own family). So in the end that guy might even be able to get money out of his bankrupt company. But normal customers won't see a dime.

[@wom_Bat]

They need a go fund me, because all that PC money is going to the creditors. Karz owes a lot to ASUS and other creditors for the parts.

[@helvete983]

Not a chance in hell of that happening. The customers are always the last in line and by then their is nothing left. Did you notice the part where there was 1.5 million in personal loans? Let that sink in, his fucking family will probably get whatever they can auction off the remaining stock for.

[@wom_Bat]

@@helvete983 yeah he used the company as a piggy bank and a play thing. He's criminally irresponsible at best.

[@khandimahn9687]

It only he had a bit of humility and honored the raffle, they might still be in business. Helping the small guy is great PR.

[@lasskinn474]

They wouldn't though, they were losing money per sales because they were ran like crap and the pricing didn't reflect that.

[@TheSjuris]

Nope they were in the process of being closed down already.

[@farhanatashiga3721]

If you actually watched the video you'll come to understand the raffle debacle is more like the final straw than the starting cracks

[@khandimahn9687]

@@farhanatashiga3721 I did watch the video, back when this all blew up. Saying if he had more humility goes back before the raffle.

[@helvete983]

The PR disaster hastened the demise. If anything it stopped more people ordering from them and at least saved some people's money. But the situation they were in could only end one way and that was bankruptcy.

[@LautaroQ2812]

"#funny" Lmao. I am so glad for your channel growth Kira, deserved. Kinda bummed in the beginning as it was about crypto and such, but now it covers a wide variety of topics and it's just great. Hoping for more. Maybe at one point you can bring out your inner gimp and collab one day with Internet Historian.

[@romfrc3265]

3:19 The clear look of a guy who's just begging for his company to be flushed down the toilet.

[@RyanBurnsRed]

I think their downfall was inevitable regardless since as you said they were losing money. The livestream exposing how much of a jackass the CEO is just sped up the process

[@triadwarfare]

@@ahmataevo reported for antisemetism. Just being a jew doesn't make you a jackass or vice versa. You justifying Hitler's actions?

[@XmarkedSpot]

​@@ahmataevo Yeah that doesn't even make sense, the stereotype is us being business-savvy

[@ahmataevo]

@@XmarkedSpot ok pRedditor

[@warcrimeconnoisseur5238]

@@XmarkedSpot The stereotype is that they are so greedy that they would let the world burn for a nickle

[@dwarf9938]

@@ahmataevo what does that even mean

[@sugarfrosted2005]

In general, if you're doing something shady, don't bring attention to yourself, or more specifically, don't be needlessly cruel.

[@RaveDecoy242]

How about if you're doing something shady, DO bring attention to yourself and DO be needlessly cruel. We need these kinds of fuckers to out themselves, you know? The less smart shady people, the better.

[@Mediados]

He clearly didn't think he was shady, he simply didn't know better. The guy was quite frankly an idiot, nothing more.

[@theotherjared9824]

Don't give your enemy a gun and act surprised when they shoot you.

[@godofdeath8785]

True thats how you make evil things

[@SirRebonack]

@3:24 Well... Hello there, happy merchant!

[@Prich319]

Ah, the pursuit of fame above all else: The original Gypsy curse

[@8bitorgy]

Great video. I was in the custom PC industry myself. The business really relied on cheap bulk orders to stay afloat. With the chip shortage as it is, I can't imagine a profitable model. This company was really banking on growth and struck out. I'm certain there's a lot of builders going under that didn't have a fraction of artesian builds' popularity.

[@KhorneBrzrkr]

It really sucks that our economy is so slanted against small businesses like this. God forbid you find a niche and fill it. Nope. It’s gotta be massive scale by well established monoliths to make a thin margin or nothing.

[@pete5516]

@@KhorneBrzrkr doesn’t help that when they go bankrupt they start auctioning off peoples PCs. At least a larger company I can be mostly sure this won’t happen, so why would I take the risk

[@KhorneBrzrkr]

@@pete5516 Yeah. People in general, and the legal system specifically, are very lazy. It would make more sense to do the right thing and return people's property. But time is money after all. So just do the quickest thing and get on to the next case.

[@waymondboyd3755]

@@KhorneBrzrkr The east coast office was widely successful finishing 90% of the orders and turning a decent profit throughout the company's history. It was run like a straight-up business with no nepotism and with a focus on churning out orders. The west coast office couldn't handle their orders and shipped them to the east coast branch to finish orders. The east coast branch had half the employees. The west coast branch was so mismanaged by the CEO that it was hemorrhaging money and brought down the massively successful east coast branch. The problem was 100% the CEO because his parents just gave him enough money to start a business. He never had to work hard or worry about going under. He never had to process orders or effectively organize the company. Hopefully, this is a wake-up call for him and he learns from his mistakes.

[@KhorneBrzrkr]

@@waymondboyd3755 You're right. It was entirely his fault. And that's usually how it goes. But him learning from his mistakes? Ha! The only thing he MIGHT learn is how to properly attribute every last failure to someone other than himself and leverage that to get more money for another company.

[@mgatelabs]

I just loved they had a east and west coast branch, and they shipped the builds from the west to the east to "Fix them".

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

This happens a lot when the people running the business are either incompetent or don't care about standards. Boeing had the same thing with their new plants in the Carolinas. They were handing out bonuses for incompetent and incomplete work, and then shipping the planes to Everett for repair and completion. Mind you, this was years before their engineering incompetence led to planes literally crashing. Expansion is hard, and more so when the new area is so far away from where you currently are located. The new location should have had a much smaller number of orders with much more oversight while the builders were learning how to perform and QA processes were improved. There will likely always be some degree of differences in terms of profitability and quality of work between different centers, but this is extreme.

[@sonicboy678]

@@SmallSpoonBrigade I think you kinda misread that. The branch in _North Carolina_ was the newer, "smaller" branch, yet it was by far the more competent of the two. The one that needed the oversight was the older, "larger" one in California, which was directly under Katz himself.

[@monkeyfeed908]

Ive heard alot of ppl say that one stream killed the company. But it was just the last thing, there was so many things killing the company and it was almost gone already

[@majormeangames]

I almost bought a new computer from them to work on my games, I'm glad I didn't. Wow...

[@Queldonus]

Thank you Kira for adding your voice and visibility to this. Gamer’s Nexus has done a lot to investigate what happened and hopes to help get people their systems back, if the group managing the bankruptcy will cooperate. Making sure that predatory businesses like this are called out and shut down is how we fight this. Let’s make sure that when Noah inevitably tries again to be famous, we all remind him, and anyone he’s trying to scam, why he’s famous.

[@daminox]

My mans tried to be famous, and while doing so held a PC giveaway where the winner wasn't famous enough. Now he's bankrupt. Get rekt, nerdlord.

[@AquaCoalaNest]

I think only the company bankrupted, the guy and his family will be fine, since they auction other people's stuff, for semi-cover the debt (starting with the family-loan for themselfes), then call it a day. Usually people don't lose any personal wealth in these cases, esp. with a good accountant+lawyer combo.

[@oz_jones]

He did get famous, though. So that's nice, I guess?

[@averagemike2171]

@@oz_jones infamous*

[@Nosferazool]

@@AquaCoalaNest yes, they do, any debt these people sign in smaller companies like these usually come with written personal guarantees

[@patrickm2912]

@@AquaCoalaNest if it wasn't an LLC, it's now way easier for his personal stuff to be taken into account. Who knows at this point though

[@Chiefs_fan1595]

Thought this was a Sunnyv2 video from the thumbnail

[@s1ightlypanda]

KIRA DAMN! You've gotten gold tier with the videos! I have a backlog to go through now!

[@alainbcdefghijk]

Noah sounds like a PR team nightmare. I can only imagine what his actual PR team os going through when all of this happened.

[@Dradeeus]

Even if I had been watching them at their peak, I would have found it pretty boring that they're building PCs for successful people. That to me is like gifting a car to Jake Paul.

[@adippful]

12:10 Okay now that's just good ol' ponzi

[@stefan3225]

I recently got defrauded by a “reputable” company who filed bankruptcy and is refusing to give refunds, yet they’re still taking orders. It’s sad there is no protection for us consumers while the wealthy business owners get to run away from their debt

[@zimbu_]

Dude was briefly listed as the co-founder of some hipster lifestyle food company for a while after Artesian Builds, but now he's basically gone into online hiding changing his last name to Novik. (And may have changed it again after that, seems weirdly difficult to find anything considering a bankruptcy and tax evasion occurred). If I had to guess he's eventually going to start another company in Canada or something, seems really into branding himself as a successful CEO.

[@crowdemon_archives]

Changing names? Damn.

[@christopherwalker2112]

We will be ready lol

[@doclouis4236]

What a trash weasel of a man.

[@pianomanhere]

It has truly been astonishing to see how many gaming companies and fellow-traveling PC makers have such shitty CEOs, with boards of directors and frequently the largest institutional shareholders being complicit in retaining these garbage people. No large institutional shareholders were involved with retaining Noah Katz at Artesian Builds, but in any case he should have been jettisoned from AB and then should have gone into a different career such as venom extraction, demolition preparation or unbridled con-artistry.

[@danialyousaf6456]

It's not really a surprise tbh. Almost every company has a shitty CEO who only cares about money (and in Noah's case, attention).

[@pianomanhere]

@@danialyousaf6456 Not Noah Katz in particular, but generally the number of shitty CEOs in the industry overall.

[@danialyousaf6456]

@@pianomanhere yeah

[@FNA4E]

It was his company man, was he going to jettison himself? Do you know how business works?!

[@Exodus000191]

They built the company they can burn it down. Doesn't mean they're a bad CEO.

[@LunchSays]

You and jackfrags, live in the same county.

[@Powertampa]

Creators not vetting their sponsors, a tale as old as KZbin itself

[@tribopower]

Its kinda wild to me that one single fail stream was the one thing that started their fall... like yeah they would fall at some point but not as fast as that... and all because of a 1k-2k pc that would be tax deducted on a multi million dollar company, that's nuts to me

[@Ulvetann]

Karma was in a real savage mood that day.

[@studybuddy.]

No one wants to be the first to shit talk something popular and well loved because fear of backlash. As soon as there’s a drop of blood in the water, one bad action that cannot be denied, it’s sharks to the slaughter. People could air their gripes without fear.

[@danielshore1457]

Tbf with this being a business I think it's more as described in the video, people were putting up with their streams because their favourite streamers were getting pcs from here as soon as they start shit talking streamers people don't have that leniency with them

[@RisingRevengeance]

Imagine having a good business but your own ego is the only thing that ruins it

[@KhorneBrzrkr]

Unfortunately that’s like 99.9% of all businesses and empires throughout history.

[@powerdude_dk]

Egoistic behavior maybe save your life in the jungle, but not in modern life.

[@moronicalmeister]

@@powerdude_dk I love this. Greedy, self involved behavior is a product of a less developed mind. Its good for bare bones survival, but not much else. Thsts why it appears to do so well in business, because its all about survival- until you realize most of that was luck or family money and once they are at the top it all falls apart. Theres a lesson to learn from all these failed ceo's, unfortunately, not enough people are learning it.

[@powerdude_dk]

@@moronicalmeister yeah, never expend a business faster then you can build the underlying infrastructure.

[@MrGneissSchist]

walter white moment

[@marcusaurelius49]

“Greed, narcissism, and arrogance” the perfect description for many content creators on KZbin, present company excluded.

[@morphman86]

To put that draw into perspective, it is analogous to having a lottery, stating that each ticket is an opportunity to win, putting all tickets into the raffle, then disqualifying the winning draw because they only bought one ticket.

[@CelticGuardian7]

It's incredible how quickly someone can tank their reputation into the ground. Great video!

[@demacherius1]

There should be a law that regulates that in case of a bankruptcy customers should get paid first. That would also have the benefit of partners more closely monitoring the companys they loan money to.

[@Mediados]

Absolutely but I am pretty sure US law always benefits the company first and the individual second

[@Bettersucksaul]

They have to pay investors first

[@helvete983]

The worst thing is the personal family loans will be paid back way before any customer gets a cent.

[@Henry8VIII8]

I believe who gets paid first depends on what type of bankruptcy is filed

[@xphiles2345]

"Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall"

[@PlaneReality]

I just went to look up what the term "dumpster fire" meant. Just as I anticipated... there is a picture of Noah Katz... "See Artesian Builds for an example"

[@KiraTV1]

Lmao

[@EdNieThePianoGuy]

New law needs to be put in place to protect consumers of their purchased goods in cases like these. Like require companies to reimburse for unfulfilled orders AND ID tag the orders in-progress so that IF the company goes bankrupt, customers can get their stuff (...at least as-is).

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Yeah, there needs to be a law for that stuff in basically every jurisdiction just to be save. Contact your local MP today and convince them to work on that.

[@TheSjuris]

@@wilmagregg3131 Artesian isn’t a repair service.

[@TheSjuris]

@@wilmagregg3131 they repaired the pcs that were under their warranty service. They didn’t repair anybody else’s pcs. No difference then buying a piece of shit pc from Dell and then sending it back to Dell to replace. They weren’t a pc repair shop.

[@helvete983]

With a 10% return rate you'd think customers would read reviews beforehand, Caveat emptor. There are consumer protection laws but they can do bugger all if the company has no money and that includes shipping items back to the customer. If the dude was in trouble for unpaid taxes, it goes taxman, then creditors, then customers and good luck ever changing that.

[@jeremydale4548]

Hell, that clause about EVERYTHING being auctioned off should’ve BY DEFAULT had a clause stating that before selling, they are to check for PERSONAL, NON company Assets and promptly return them if possible. The fact that it doesn’t honestly makes me wish the person who created the clause would either Die, or be executed for their inhumane thinking.

[@J.C...]

Wait is this the guy who wouldn't fulfill winners because they weren't big enough?

[@toomanyaccounts]

yes.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

That was the spark that triggered the sudden collapse. But, as noted, they were effectively operating while insolvent, which is a pretty big deal. This could just as easily have happened when one of their creditors called a loan. I'm guessing that they were so poorly run that they couldn't secure a bridge loan to cover the costs of finishing the work that they promised and moving forward. That is, assuming they were even thinking that far forward.

[@mreasyclap]

Thats weird cause I have a friend who won one of those ambassador giveaways and he was under 1k followers. They still sent him the pc no issues. Seems like there was more then analytics contributing to it.

[@AzazelCodex]

Love your videos, Kira you really know how to describe things to fit the situation

[@_Azurai]

Just one look at that guy's smug-ass face tells me all I need to know about his integrity.

[@WeirdWonderful]

Really hope the owners who bought their builds or sent them in for repair could prevent their property being auctioned off to clear Artesian's debts.

[@scragar]

I would expect that stuff in for repair should be labeled with it's owner and thus wouldn't be counted amongst their assest.

[@toomanyaccounts]

@@scragar it is counted though. that is part of the lawsuits

[@nathanielheilmann7351]

@@scragar From what it's been reported the West Coast shop was an absolute trash fire while the East Coast shop worked their butts off to get orders out before the final closure. Sadly I don't think records were as meticulously kept but I would be of course happy to be proven wrong

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

I'd expect that the credit card companies will be picking up a bunch of the bill on this and going after Noah and whomever else is a shareholder to the extent that they can. But, ultimately, a lot of people will be out serious cash, and the rest of it will likely come from the funds that credit cards set aside for such things. At least for the warranty work, often times credit card companies will provide warranty enhancements as part of their services to encourage people to spend.

[@47RoninGaming]

He put the gun point blank onto his foot "it'll miss" he thought and pulled the trigger....he didn't miss.

[@quinnzykir]

Me breaking in to steal computer parts

[@pboytrif1]

Lol changing his name. This reminds me of a wise quote I heard once upon a time. "You only ever get one name... use it wisely." - Or apparently, you'll end up needing to change it

[@threethrushes]

"Change your name, they said. It would be easy, they said." Koah Natz

[@zappedcustomdesigns788]

Glad youre feeling well enough to pour content onto us my friend!

[@Tech_Otter]

If I recall correctly, the inventory (Lots 1 & 2 of the Bankruptcy Auction) was purchased by a fellow KZbinr (I forget their name) who then worked with a team to reach out to every customer to ensure they were made whole by sending them their systems back, building their pending systems with the inventory, or refunding them out of pocket. (They plan on selling off the remaining inventory on their website and eBay to recoup the costs) They said in a live stream only one person declined any kind of compensation, writing off their loss as "Stupidity Tax" or something. (I believe it was also said the customer was a millionaire). Maybe one day KiraTV or any other documentary KZbin channel will do an update video to close the book on Artesian Builds.

[@3ftninja132]

I remember watching all this fall apart pretty much live, it was amazing to see.

[@Paratet]

It's honestly seems like Noah wanted to be Linus Sebastian without the years of hard work or charisma. People like Tech Influencers like Linus, Marques, and Dave 2D because they're all passionate about tech first and influencers second.

[@AquaCoalaNest]

Except if they promote paid scams, like Linus, don't know about the others.

[@richardhead8826]

Keep your eyes on Overkill Computers, they are showing some of the same poor management issues and poor legal advice as Artesian and might implode as well.

[@t0xcn253]

"I wish to be famous" "Now you are Noah..." ABSOLUTELY BARBARIC

[@ghostiulian1]

Before watching I had the idea that this guy inherited the company then immediately proceeded to burn it to the ground. The fact that he could achieve success is much more damning when he destroyed it just for his own sins.

[@AchEdeJungeNeDu]

Cant wait for the summoning salt video of this category

[@nebufabu]

From what I understood it's kinda reverse in the US law. To be a legal marketing giveaway and not illegal lottery there should be no "consideration" (substantial payment in money or in kind just for entering.) Katz admitting live it's about participants "earning him money" (and other stuff) make it sound very much like the second case...

[@theprofessionalnftvendor7611]

"Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, the only certainty is oblivion."

[@APARAT79]

Artesian Builds had 2 HQ's, west and east. West HQ (where this CEO was) were capable of buiding 2-3 PC's per day, while East HQ was building 10-15 PC's per day with the same number of employees. And also guality of West HQ builds was horrifying... West HQ had return rate of 10% of all PC's shipped, while East HQ had return rate of less than 0.2%. And all those PC's that were built for big streamers live on Twich in West HQ where shipped to East HQ, where they rewired whole system, beacuse West HQ's cable management was so horrible that those PC's had to be shipped to East HQ for repairs before they could be shipped to big Twitch streamers. Without East HQ, this company would be already gonne long time ago...

[@Itskilo]

I'm so glad Discount Star Lord lost his business. He had some great ideas of how to grow a business but should have stayed off-screen because It's getting pretty easy to spot a narcissist these days.

[@fractal4284]

I remember when this all happened I was in that live stream when the scandal happened

[@Shnecko]

The monkey's paw curls. Noah wanted to become famous, and so he did.

[@NeinTeaAteKay]

not hating, love you kira i often rewatch your crytoland reaction vids, but this thumbnail is incredibly similair to sunnyv2's

[@koppsr]

All it takes, is one person with way to big visions or way too much self appreciation. I feel sad for the employees. Not only did they have to put up with Noah's ego and behavior, they were also the ones facing the customers on a daily basis and ate now the ones having to look for a new way to support themselves by finding a new job.

[@DoctorMcHerp]

I remember them making TWO PC's for a vtuber. The cases they used were absurdly huge and it took FOREVER for them to work on it despite the recipient communicating frequently. Both stopped working and had many issues within the first week of her using it.

[@nicloren2220]

I was so scared I thought it was Matt Pat

[@danieldanielson17]

Anyone else thought this was a SunnyV2 video because of the thumbnail?

[@TheCBear95]

Yeah, must be deliberate

[@dougray30]

I knew a lot of this train wreck, but I never heard about the push for Twitch subs. Goes beyond slimy and hits cringe level 6.

[@HunterLvyiXIII]

Last year I was looking for a custom PC, and looked up a couple independent builders, a couple local companies, and then heard about AB from Suris, subsequently deciding to check them out. I'm budget conscious first, so I never got past the initial quote. It was almost 1.5 times the price of the company I ended up going through, noped out of there so fast! When I found out about all of this I was so glad I never purchased from them

[@Kirkvanhouten55]

Custom PC building as a business seems like a relic of the 90s. Anybody can DIY. Especially in the KZbin age

[@ski_ba]

Great video Kira. Thanks for documenting this into the yt platform forever.

[@markbaker4425]

Yeah i saw a comment from him where he said the extra bit of work doing an outro doesnt translate to more money so its not worth him doing it

[@Riclaval]

Similar but different to Chronicles of Elyria, with it's crowdfunding advertised to develop a game, but instead it was all just used for marketing, later on confessing that it was decided at the beginning of Kickstarters to use all funds to gain official investors and publishers, lying to the private investors aka the people who crowdfunded. At this point I'd welcome a gaming regulatory body that helps avoid these unwanted outcomes, especially when there was no intent to scam and simply stupid scheming to success.

[@Logan-bd5np]

'how to destroy your life' thumb. i dont need an instructional video. trust me. IVE GOT THIS.

[@jkotarsky]

I wanted to start a PC building company, way back in 2005. I called it Demon Built. I had some badass builds but the margins were very small. It makes me feel good that even a big company with millions of dollars failed too. haha.

[@folkloreofbeing]

That sounds like an awesome company name. What happened with your business?

[@jkotarsky]

It just faded away. Thanks for liking the name. @@folkloreofbeing

[@folkloreofbeing]

@@jkotarsky I know how you feel. I tried selling books for a while. Margins on books are practically paper thin, too. Still, ove the name. Maybe one day I'll get to by a demon built PC 🙂

[@UltimaN3rd]

Thought this was a sunnyv2 video from the thumbnail... That's some heavy "inspiration".

[@davidb3352]

So the court sent me a list of all the items that were up for auction and I was really tempted to put in some bids. But then I thought about it and said... what am I going to do with a ton of PC parts other than resell? And while it sounds like a path to make some profits, after paying to have it shipped to me, my margins would be incredibly small for my effort.

[@toomanyaccounts]

there is also the issue you are getting pcs sent in for repair making you liable for other people's property

[@davidb3352]

@@toomanyaccounts unfortunately, all customer PCs that were sent in for repair are initially attempted to be identified and returned. But after that, they are property of AB and are part of the auction list as complete builds. Buying brand new items from auction as a reseller doesn't put any liability on you if the items are unopened/unused. Anyone that buys from you needs to address their warranty concerns with the manufacturer.

[@toomanyaccounts]

@@davidb3352 you mean the manufactor that no longer exists and hence the auction buyer is responsible since one is getting the name. as i said pcs sent in for repair with customer hard drives full of data are a liability issue for the auction buyer

[@davidb3352]

@@toomanyaccounts I mean the manufacturer of the parts ie EVGA, ASUS, MSI etc selling the builds as a whole would be a really bad idea unless you specified *"as is"* for the sale. However, any part that had been put into a build basically had no warranty at that point and should be considered as used and sold as such. Additionally, no one should ever fire up a used storage device without previously cleaning it. Doing so outside of close lab could have disastrous results. In terms of liability, the buy assumes none. However, maliciously using any personal data is still a crime no matter if the data was sourced legally.

[@powerdude_dk]

@@davidb3352 it annoys me immensely that the court can auction away people's personal PCs. If there owner isn't found, at least have someone wipe the harddrives so the data doesn't get into the wrong hands. Even though it's against the law, it's far too late if someone buys a PC to exploit the personal data.

[@jaybeam1466]

All of these prebuilt PC companies price rape their customers. If you see one of them sellling a prebuilt gaming PC for $2K USD, chances are you can build it yourself in less than an hour for $1400 USD. Artesian Builds, META PC, IBuyPower, it doesn't matter. They all do it.

[@TheBluemindedGod]

You got me with the SunnyV2 style thumbnail, I'll give you credit. You seem comparable though, so I'll sub.

[@TheInternetHelpdeskPlays]

I've been following the story on Gamers Nexus from the original announcement. It's been such a shitshow. The more eyeballs that get on this story, the better. Noah Katz destroyed the whole thing.