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Anis Bennaceur

Anis Bennaceur is co-founder and CEO of Attention, an AI sales platform based in New York [1][2]. He is a second-time founder and angel investor [3]. Bennaceur began his career in investment banking and private equity, holding positions at Nomura International in investment banking [10], BNP Paribas as an M&A analyst [9], and Eurazeo in growth and private equity [8]. He subsequently worked in marketing and growth at Tinder [7]. From April 2015 to June 2021, Bennaceur served as co-founder and CEO of Mixer, a creative network platform, which he exited [6]. He has held an advisory role at P00LS from June 2021 to June 2025 [5]. Bennaceur holds a Master Grande Ecole degree from ESCP with majors in finance and entrepreneurship [12], and completed preparatory classes in the scientific section at Saint Jean de Douai [13].

Founded

Insights & ideas

Anis Bennaceur builds Attention around the idea that AI agents should absorb the busywork of sales, drafting demo decks ahead of calls and running closed-loss analyses against frameworks like MEDDIC to explain why deals were lost [1]. He argues these systems can surface real weaknesses, such as a rep failing to build a compelling business case, and points to a live six-figure deal where the AI's diagnosis matched an outside VP of sales' instinct almost exactly, later confirmed by the rep himself [1].

On hiring, he uses a "triangle of talent" framework, from useless to task monkey to problem solver to systems thinker to superstar, arguing job title is irrelevant to where someone actually sits [2]. He believes people mostly arrive at their natural level and rarely move up significantly, so the priority is maximizing level-five hires rather than trying to train people upward [2]. He also stresses that early hires should carry founder traits and that founders should first map their own competencies as a pair to identify true gaps before hiring to reach product-market fit [2].

Experience

  1. Co-Founder and CEO
    AttentionSep 2021 to Present
  2. Advisor
    P00LSJun 2021 to Jun 2025
  3. Co-Founder and CEO (Exited)
    Mixer - The Creative NetworkApr 2015 to Jun 2021
  4. Marketing & Growth
    TinderJul 2013 to Dec 2014
  5. Growth & Private Equity
    EurazeoJan 2013 to Jun 2013
  6. M&A Analyst
    BNP Paribas2012 to 2012
  7. Investment Banking - M&A EMEA
    Nomura InternationalJun 2011 to Sep 2011
  8. Intern Pre-Sales
    SunGard - now part of FISApr 2010 to Aug 2010

Education

  • ESCP · Master Grande Ecole, Major in Finance and in Entrepreneurship2008 - 2012
  • Saint Jean de Douai · Preparatory Classes, Scientific section2005 - 2008

Media & appearances

In the news

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