Join us in this episode of the B2B SaaS podcast as we deep dive with Suresh, co-founder and CEO of Sales Table AI, a sales readiness platform aiming for repeatable quota attainment.

• Suresh shares insights from his previous entrepreneurial ventures, including exits to companies like Oracle, shedding light on the highs and lows of the startup journey.
• We explore the evolution of Sales Table AI from its inception to its current standing, examining pivotal decisions and strategic pivots along the way.
• Discover the challenges faced by early-stage startups in driving sales and customer acquisition, and how Sales Table AI navigates these hurdles.
• Learn about Sales Table AI's target customer base, ranging from SMBs to mid-market enterprises, and the value proposition it offers to sales leaders and reps.
• Dive into the metrics behind Sales Table AI's growth, including ARR, deal size, and customer acquisition strategies, providing valuable insights for aspiring entrepreneurs.
• Explore Sales Table AI's product roadmap, which incorporates AI-driven features and integrations with leading platforms like HubSpot and Salesforce, catering to evolving customer needs.
• Gain valuable insights into the internal dynamics of Sales Table AI, including its lean engineering team, bootstrapped funding model, and plans for future expansion.
• Discover the importance of customer feedback and market validation in shaping Sales Table AI's growth trajectory, emphasizing the value of agility and adaptability in the startup ecosystem.

Hello everyone.

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Welcome to the B2B SaaS podcast.

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I'm your host . Today we have with uss.

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Here is the co-founder and CEO of

a company called Sales Table ai.

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Right?

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Hey Reh, welcome to the show.

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Suresh Madhuvarsu: Hey,

uh, hello everyone.

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Uh, Hey Upendra, first of all, uh, it's

an honor to be part of your podcast.

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I've definitely seen a lot of great

entrepreneurs coming and then providing

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their insights and their experiences.

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And the way I really think of it is,

uh, I've been a full time founder at

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this point of time and every journey

is very different and every journey is.

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And at the same time, painful, right?

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I think, uh, I'm really at a point where,

uh, I love to, uh, talk about not just

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about the, uh, Uh, good points about the

entrepreneurship and being a founder,

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but I think, you know, there are also a

lot of, uh, pain that people go through.

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And I think, uh, it's really

important for, uh, the people in the

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founder community, entrepreneurship

community to talk through.

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So that it's not just about the great

side of the things, but there are

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also, uh, on the dark side of the

things that we need to talk through.

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Upendra Varma: So, alright ish, so before

we sort of get into sales table, right,

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so I see that you like, I think I as

you already mentioned, you full-time

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SaaS, like fulltime founder, right?

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So what sort of companies have you

like sort of tried to build in the

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past and what happened to them?

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Just, are they in B2B or

are they something else?

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Like, just, just, can you

give us a sense of that?

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Suresh Madhuvarsu: Yeah, absolutely.

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I mean, uh, my entire life has

been, uh, B2B, uh, I would say

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enterprise, um, uh, products.

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That's really where, uh,

I grew up, I would say.

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Uh, and, um, the first company

was really about a, uh, B2C by the

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way, but it's really about, uh,

bringing Kids, parents together.

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Uh, it's a tech, uh, company

almost about, uh, 15 years ago.

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And, uh, that, that's even before Facebook

came out with groups, for example.

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Right.

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Uh, so that, that's really

the idea over there.

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And then, uh, we ran it for about

a year and a, uh, year and a half.

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And then the financial, um,

downturn began in the us.

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And, um, uh, I think, you know, clearly

at that point of time, there was no,

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uh, clear, uh, uh, product market

fit, but at the same time, I think,

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you know, the financial downturn

didn't really help us to really get

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to the next, uh, milestones for us.

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Uh, so that, that was the first one.

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Um, and the second one was, uh,

really all about, uh, How do we

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bring in the service oriented

architecture into the enterprise space?

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And, uh, uh, we actually build

it and then, uh, we actually

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sold it to Software AG.

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And, uh, a lot of, uh, lessons learned.

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That was completely a VC backed, uh,

company, but, um, within five and a half

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years, we were able to kind of, you know,

get it to, uh, exit, uh, out of that.

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And, uh, the third company was.

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really in the space of

construction, uh, management.

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And, um, uh, that is the company.

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Really think of it as a lot of

construction project management

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happens, uh, in the offices, right?

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Uh, that's really where

you plan a project.

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That is where you Uh, people think

of it as the execution happens

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unfortunately at the site, right?

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But Uh, there is no proper way

to really understand, you know,

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how do we collect the data?

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What kind of progress has been made?

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All that and that's what we were

able to kind of, you know Bring it

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using the mobile apps and the cost

management and all that Um, that's

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the company that was sold to oracle.

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Um, and uh, that, that was the last one.

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And then of course, I mean, you

know, sales table is, uh, the

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one, uh, that we are building now.

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So, uh, I'm really excited about

everything that we've done in the past.

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A lot of lessons learned for sure.

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Upendra Varma: All right.

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That's, that's a lot of exits as well.

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Right.

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So, and, and like, what keeps on,

like, what, what does keep, like,

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how do you keep on building things?

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Like what keeps on going?

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Right.

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So what, what's, what's the,

what's the goal for you?

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Right.

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So do you just keep on building stuff?

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Right.

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What excites you the most here?

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Suresh Madhuvarsu: Yeah,

that's a great one.

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I think at some point of time, again,

For me, uh, after, uh, probably

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seven years into the workforce is

when I realized that, uh, I really

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take pride in building things right.

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You know, I really love

that process of zero to one.

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Uh, when I say zero to one, it's

really about, Hey, you know what?

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You have a big idea.

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And then, uh, to really make sure

that that is, that idea makes sense.

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It, it provides value to somebody.

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And then take that idea to

something as a product and

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then build a company out of it.

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And then getting the first

customers, um, getting the first

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employee and really talking to

your customers, prodding the value.

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That is the process that I love.

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Um, and, um, On the same side, I,

I really suck or I will be really

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a bad employee per se, right?

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You know, I just can't, uh,

really fit in big companies.

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That's not really, uh, me.

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Uh, so I think, and again, the reason

why I'm mentioning this is I think, you

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know, everybody has their own personality.

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Everybody has their own

way of doing things.

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And, uh, in the founder

entrepreneurial journey.

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It's very, very, very important to

really realize who you are, what

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you like, and really go from there.

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Right?

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Because.

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A lot of, um, friends and, um, family

members who are in the big companies,

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they will say, Hey, you know what,

I'm really, uh, taking this, um, uh,

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idea to, uh, product, you know, it

is like a startup in my big company.

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And then I say, sorry,

no, it's not a startup.

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Right because you don't have the same

pain you have a brand, you know people

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associate you with that brand And then

you don't have the problems in paying the

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employees You're not really looking at you

know, whether I can pay these employees or

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not You are not looking for the payroll,

but I think you know that's really where

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we need to really see where you are

comfortable with and Really get to that.

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So To your question, I think, you

know, that's really what drives me

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Upendra Varma: makes sense.

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So let's come back to

sales table for now, right?

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So like what, what does

sales table do, right?

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And what's the product about and

who are the customers that primarily

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using this particular product?

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Suresh Madhuvarsu: So, uh, we, we think

of a sales table is a sales readiness co

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pilot for repeatable quota attainment.

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So let me tell you what that is, right?

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So when you think about, uh, sales

leaders, a huge part of their life

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is really thinking about, Hey,

what, what, what are the, um, uh,

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what is the quota that I have?

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I mean, how do I make sure that

my team is performing and they

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are able to attain that quota?

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And then not just about, you know, one

particular quarter, but then over a period

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of one year, and then in big companies,

we actually kind of, you know, plan it out

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for the next five years, in terms of the,

Uh quota and then how do we want to kind

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of do the revenue growth and everything?

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and uh in many cases in the last uh,

four five years or so uh, we've been

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definitely seeing a challenge in terms

of the growth rates have um come down

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and then the Sales cycles have gone.

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Um, the duration has become really

huge and then people are not

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making decisions and all that.

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So again, And a lot of it really comes

down to the fact that 80 percent of the

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salespeople are not hitting the quota.

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That's super unfortunate.

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That's the number one thing.

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Number two, according to a latest

report last year, Only 17 percent

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of the salespeople hit the quota,

which basically means that 80 percent

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of the people didn't hit the quota.

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Right.

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So now when the way we think about

a sales table is there is so much

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of activity that happens, you

know, the, in the sales table.

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sales side of it, we want to make

sure that we want to give back

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the time to sales leaders so that

they can go and do the strategic

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activity and the vision planning.

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And then we want to give the right

tools and confidence to sales reps.

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So that when they go in front of

a prospect, they are confident

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on how to sell the product.

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I mean, the pain points, and then really

understand the whole pitch as itself.

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And, uh, that's really what

we do bring confidence to

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sales reps using sales table.

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Upendra Varma: Got it, right.

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So just, uh, let us help us

Just let me help you understand

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the customer base today, right?

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So like how many active paying customers

you have on sales table right now?

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Suresh Madhuvarsu: Yeah, sure.

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So the way we've uh, started

this journey is about two years

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back we launched our product.

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And then, uh, at this point of time,

uh, we have 150, uh, beta customers, uh,

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who are, who have validated our product.

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And then, uh, we are close to 15

paying customers at this point of time.

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And, um, uh, we are very proud

of, I think, you know, the journey

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that we have taken because.

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We wanted to initially provide and

then really see uh, who are those beta

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customers who is really excited and

then the kind of uh Um, usage metrics

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that they are providing and clearly, I

mean, you know, sometimes in the last

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three years because of the economy,

because of, uh, what is happening

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in the international markets, you

know, a lot of things change, right?

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I mean, which basically means the ICP

or the ideal customer profile that

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we define probably three years back

is not relevant right now anymore.

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And that's exactly what, um, uh,

we had to pivot along the way.

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And then make sure that we are

serving the right customers.

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Upendra Varma: Okay.

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And what, like, just, uh, sort of

what's the profile of this customer?

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So how big of a deal are we talking about?

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It is the, are the SMBs, big market

enterprises, like, just, can you

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just help us understand that?

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Suresh Madhuvarsu: Absolutely.

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So initially when we started, we really

started with what we call as the SMBs,

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I think almost two years ago, right?

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And the one thing that we realized with

the SMBs is that, uh, while there is a

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lot of pain point for them, especially

because of the, uh, External factors with

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the economy and everything, the spendings,

the budgets have cut down and then the

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people are cut down, unfortunately, and

they don't have somebody who can take on

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the role of having the tools implemented,

or even have somebody evaluate the tools.

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And I think, you know, that has

become, you know, a bigger challenge,

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especially in the last couple of years.

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And then that is one reason

why we moved to mid market.

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I think, you know, mid market

is, uh, is still growing and then

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there is a greater need out there.

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And we especially kind of, you

know, really focus and then provide

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value to sales leaders, right?

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Think of it as sales ops, uh,

CSOs and then CROs Uh, and then

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even the sales enablement teams.

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Those are the teams that Take a lot

of value from sales table So that at

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the end of the day sales reps are the

ones that we really focus and make sure

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That they are getting the right value

when they go in front of our customers.

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Upendra Varma: Got it.

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So can I assume like these, these

deals are on 10, 20, 000 deals

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that these 15 paying customers

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Suresh Madhuvarsu: Yeah, absolutely.

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I mean, uh, so we go anywhere

between 20 to 24k per year.

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Upendra Varma: that makes a lot of sense.

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Yeah.

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And like, just help us understand, right.

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So the, the, how you've driven

this 150 beta customers, right.

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So how have you worked with them?

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Like, like what's that, you know,

uh, you know, lead generation

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look like for you, right.

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So.

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Suresh Madhuvarsu: Yeah Um, so

There is, uh, definitely I would

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say, uh, outbound is, uh, by even

though it is not a magic bullet,

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but that is really where we started.

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And when we say outbound, it's

really about the initial, the email,

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uh, and LinkedIn and Facebook.

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I think, you know, it's a mix

of all these three things.

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And I mean, we, we kind of mix and

match based on, uh, the segment of

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the customers and whoever that is.

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But typically I would say at this

point of time, the outbound is

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really a major part of how we were

able to bring in the customers.

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But if we go actually, you know, two

years back, I think, you know, this

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is one of the things that as a, Uh

first time founder or for anybody that

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is super important is The question

really becomes how do I even get

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the first beta customer or first?

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You know a paying customer and one of

the things that we always looked at

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is Make sure that you know, you have

enough folks within your network Uh

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that are able to help you out, right?

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so really look into your network on if

you are able to bring in some of your

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first set of network or second level of

network whoever that is make sure if there

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is somebody who can Kind of you know sign

up, uh, and then really provide the value

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and We actually got some of the initial

five, six customers like that, right?

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Really somebody who are friendly, who can

provide you great value, uh, feedback.

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Uh, and then of course, you know,

then you go to the outbound and

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then get to somebody completely

unknown and, uh, all that.

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So that's really the journey

that we've been through.

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Uh, the last thing that I would say is

Even though how much ever we want to

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do the outbound, uh, or the inbound,

um, in terms of, uh, doing the, um,

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uh, right, you know, podcast, like,

you know, what we're doing now, uh,

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doing the webinars and then, you know,

really doing a lot of, uh, Google

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or LinkedIn ads and all that thing.

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Again, As a startup, the resources

are super constrained for

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anybody and then for us as well.

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And that is one of the part where,

uh, we are, we don't do a lot,

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even though we should be doing a

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Upendra Varma: Yeah, makes sense.

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Right.

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So, and like, what's,

what's the plan here?

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Right.

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So how do you go from, let's say,

whatever ARR you are at today, right?

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Maybe 200, 300 K to, let's say 1 million.

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Like, what's the plan, right?

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So are you planning to hire

somebody in terms of sales reps

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or like, what's the vision?

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How do you grow from here?

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Suresh Madhuvarsu: Yeah, definitely.

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So I think there are two parts that

we are really looking at, right?

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I mean, especially with the

Advent of, uh, the GPT's, LLM's,

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Upendra Varma: you talk about that, right.

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So can I assume all the 15 paying

customers that you've closed so far are

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primarily led, like from founded, let's

say it's like you went and closed or found

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us from founders actually ended up losing.

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Okay.

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Suresh Madhuvarsu: correct.

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Yeah.

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Uh, all of them are founded at sales.

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And then, um, we do have a great,

uh, head of sales that we were

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able to, uh, tap into last year.

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Uh, Dakota May, I mean, um, and

he's able to definitely help us, you

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know, bring in the great pipeline.

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And then, um, we get to that next steps,

but I think at the end of the day.

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Um, it's sales is really

founder's problem, right?

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Uh, I don't think we can, uh, give it

to anybody else until, of course, you

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know, we get to a certain stage and

then, uh, what are those trigger points?

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I think, you know, that really

depends, you know, varies for, uh,

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uh, company to company, but initially

it is really the founder who has

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to, uh, bring in the sales at that

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Upendra Varma: right.

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So like, what about the

engineering team here, right?

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So how many have, like, how many

do you have on your team today?

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Suresh Madhuvarsu: point.

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So we have a, uh, super small, uh, team.

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It is, uh, two engineers.

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They are based out of, uh, Mexico.

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And, um, uh, for us, yes, we, we work

out really well, you know, same timeline,

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and then there is a great talent that

is actually coming out of Mexico.

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Upendra Varma: So the two engineers are

working on building the entire product.

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Like your product looks

pretty complex to me, right?

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So there's a lot of integration

sort of stuff out there, right,

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that you're doing, right?

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So how are two engineers even

sort of handling all of this?

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Suresh Madhuvarsu: Yeah.

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I mean, uh, again, uh, I, I really kind

of, uh, bring in the talent aspect of it.

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Right.

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I think, you know, there are, Uh,

some engineers who are able to really

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crank up a lot of things together.

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And then we are really fortunate to

be able to find, uh, the engineering

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team who is multi talented full stack.

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And, uh, they're able to crank

features like, uh, super fast.

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Uh, but at the same time, they also kind

of, you know, push back on the things.

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Hey, you know what, you

know, why do we need this?

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Why do we need that?

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And I think, you know, we have

a very healthy conversation in

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terms of, uh, What is needed?

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Why, why is something needed?

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And, uh, that's the only way, uh,

especially in the small teams, we

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make a decision and then move fast.

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Upendra Varma: So have you

raised any external funding

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so far to build the company?

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Suresh Madhuvarsu: Uh, we haven't, I

mean, uh, the company is completely

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bootstrapped at this point of time.

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Upendra Varma: Okay, like

and what's the vision, right?

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So what are you looking in the

next two to three years, right?

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So, and just talk about from product

perspective, from go to market

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perspective, and maybe a couple

of, you know, key goals that you're

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aiming for internally, right?

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So that we could understand how,

where this is going to go from now.

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Suresh Madhuvarsu: Yeah, so I

think, you know, there, there is

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probably, you know, I'll just provide

a little bit of context, right?

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So for us.

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Uh, the whole, uh, advent of the AI in

general, I think, um, even though we

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are not crazy about just putting the

AI just for the sake of AI, I think,

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you know, that's really definitely not,

uh, our vision, but I think there are

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some parts of AI where, you know, For

example, chat GPT, the LLMs can summarize

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things a lot better, for example.

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So those kinds of summarization

techniques are very helpful.

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And the second part is, uh, they

can actually provide, uh, let's say

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sales scripts, uh, for salespeople

in a, uh, fraction of, uh, time.

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And those are the kinds of things we

do want to build into the sales table.

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I think, you know, there is a, pretty

good healthy road map that we want to

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build into sales table and we constantly

work with our customers in terms of what

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is needed and what kind of features are

really helpful and valuable for them.

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That's the first part.

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The second part is The go to market

strategy, I think, you know, we want to do

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a good amount of, uh, product marketing at

this point of time, uh, so that, uh, our,

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um, customers as well as the prospects

actually see the value, see the work

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that we are doing at this point of time.

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That's going to be very important.

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And of course, I mean, or the third

pillar for us is we want to be able to,

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uh, kind of really see Those growth hacks

in terms of the sales and uh, that's

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going to be important for us, right?

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so now fast forward, I mean for the

Next couple of years we want to get

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to at least a two million dollar era.

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That's really our goal at this point

of time and using all these, you know

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the product features and then the

marketing angle and then the growth

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hacks is really where There, uh, most

importantly, though, uh, we really

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feel, uh, we are blessed to have, um,

a lot of great customers who are, who

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constantly provide us the feedback.

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And, uh, that's really one of the

internal, I would say, a secret

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weapon that we use, uh, to really

build the right features and, uh,

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get the right value to our customers.

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Upendra Varma: So this, I'm going to

ask something very specific, right?

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So I think you're closing it on 20, 20,

have, has any of your customers so far

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asked you for any certification, security

certifications or compliance, like SOP2

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or ISO, have they asked you and what was

your, uh, you know, take on that, right?

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So did you

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Suresh Madhuvarsu: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So, uh, that's a great point.

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I think, you know, for any startup,

uh, in general, I think, you

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know, that's a constant battle

that everybody goes through.

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Right.

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I mean, um, no amount of, um, uh, feature

set is going to Make customers happy

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because it is just there is a constant,

uh, things that keep flowing but I think

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most importantly the security angle the

SOP2 compliance is something that people

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keep asking us and That is something

that we will provide at some point

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of time that is there as part of the

roadmap But I mean, for example, if you

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just see Uh just about this monday, we

released the HubSpot integration, right?

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You know now we are actually part of

uh, You HubSpot app marketplace, uh,

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which is a very great milestone for us.

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And, uh, that really brings a lot of

value for our sales reps where they don't

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have to, um, double enter the numbers.

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And then everything comes from,

um, HubSpot into sales table.

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It's a one place, uh, that you

have all the data to look into.

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So those are the kind of, uh,

valuable integrations that we

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will keep building for sure.

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Uh, and then the next thing is we're

actually planning for a salesforce

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integration for sure, right?

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So those are the things as and when We

actually get the feedback and then we see

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that there is a value for a lot of our

customers We absolutely want to build that

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but again, we need to understand right

at some point of time Every startup, you

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know, irrespective of whether it is sales

stable or not Uh, we need to decide on

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you have a limited budget limited resource

and then you know Where do you want to

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focus and that's really where I would

say there is a constant push and pull.

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Upendra Varma: Yeah.

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Absolutely.

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That makes a lot of sense.

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Thanks.

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Thanks for taking the time to talk to me.

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Hope your scale stays stable

to much, much greater heights.

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Suresh Madhuvarsu: Absolutely again

um, thanks a lot for asking all the

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relevant questions, I think That that

really got me, you know Started thinking

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about you know our growth as well.

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So thanks for that

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Upendra Varma: That, that sounds good.

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Yeah.