Until recently Artesian Builds was a PC building company and, with 50 employees and multi-million dollar revenue, one of considerable size. As part of its business Artesian would livestream the building of high-end custom PCs, and do giveaways. One of these began a chain of events that, ultimately, would bring the company to bankruptcy.
Early this year Twitch affiliate streamer Kiapiaa entered and won an ‘ambassador’ giveaway run by Artesian. However, Artesian CEO Noah Katz said that Kiapiaa didn’t qualify because she had fewer than 5,000 followers across social media platforms, and withheld the prize.
Kiapiaa and the audience vehemently disagreed, and controversy swirled around the decision. Soon enough sponsor Intel stepped in, and an official apology was made by Katz, accepting Kiapiaa was the “rightful winner” and adding, “I…
