In this episode, Amit RG, CEO of RichPanel, discusses their journey from inception to surpassing $2MN ARR.

Here are the talking points,

Understanding RichPanel's Value Proposition

• RichPanel's mission: Seamless customer service experience, eliminating the need for frequent contacts.
• Comparison with industry giants like Amazon and Uber, focusing on proactive support and streamlined operations.

Target Market and Product Differentiation

• Primary focus: E-commerce companies; also serving SaaS companies.
• Unique approach: Analyzing reasons for customer contacts to proactively address issues.
• Differentiation from traditional help desks: Integration of self-service features akin to Amazon's My Account section.

Metrics and Growth Trajectory

• Over 2000 paying customers, predominantly in the US, with an average deal size of $10,000.
• Achieved over $2M ARR, doubling revenue annually since inception.
• Initial growth driven by personal contacts; scalable channels include word-of-mouth, organic search, and SEO.

Conversion Strategy and Sales Cycle

• Inside sales model with a swift conversion cycle of 3-4 weeks.
• Conversion driven by trial usage and ensuring value realization; personalized support during the trial phase.

Churn, Retention, and Expansion

• Churn rate reduced to near 0%, with occasional downgrades and expansions.
• Limited expansion opportunities due to generous initial plans; focus on making the product more accessible.

Early-stage Growth and Funding

• Initial growth from personal contacts; later scaled through interviews and customer feedback.
• Raised $2M in funding from Sequoia with initial selection from Y Combinator.

Team Composition and Future Goals

• 30-member team with a product-focused approach, including engineers, customer support, sales, and HR.
• Next milestone: Exploring new applications and integrations to enhance product offerings and market reach.

Hello everyone.

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Welcome to the B2B SaaS podcast.

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I'm your host, Upendra Verma.

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And today we have Amit Arji with us.

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Amit here is the CEO of a

company called RichPanel.

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Hey Amit, welcome to the show.

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Amit: Thank you, Bender.

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Thanks for having me.

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Upendra Varma: All right, Amit,

let's, let's try to understand, right?

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What RichPanel does, right?

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And why customers are

willing to pay you money.

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Amit: Sure, sure, absolutely.

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Uh, see, we, we at Driftpanel, uh,

you know, we believe the best kind

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of customer service is the one,

uh, where you don't have to contact

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customer service in the first place.

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Uh, so, so, it, it sounds,

uh, uh, contradictory.

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But if you look at the apps you

use on a day to day basis, right?

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Look at, look at apps like

Amazon or look at apps like Uber.

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Uh, I've gone and used these apps

for many years without having

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to contact them even once or

contacting them like once every year.

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Uh, because the way that these

guys think about customer services,

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they think, Uh, any edge case that

the product hasn't solved, uh,

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is what creates a support ticket.

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So if you could, uh, analyze all

of them and make it a part of the

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product, you wouldn't need to,

uh, contact these people anymore.

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Uh, without naming any specific brands,

I've had some very horrific experiences.

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Uh, horrific is a very strong word

to use, but frustrating experiences,

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uh, buying from Uh, brands where, you

know, the return process, the exchange

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process, or something like just editing

an order, uh, after hours, because

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you know, the brand is, uh, doesn't

have like a customer support team,

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uh, on a weekend is, is really painful

because they don't have any staff.

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And even though, uh, you know, I tried

to change something or add items to my

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cart within five minutes of making a

purchase, I couldn't really do that.

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Uh, so that's, that's what we're

hoping to change with rich panel.

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Uh, we want to enable.

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e commerce brands to have like the

same kind of experiences or be able to

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deliver the same kind of experiences.

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The ones that you see on apps like

Amazon, like productize everything

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that people don't need to contact you.

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Upendra Varma: that makes a lot of sense.

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So I just want to understand

this customer base a bit, right?

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So you talked about you serving

e commerce companies, right?

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So are they your primary focus today?

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Amit: Correct.

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We, we, we, uh, are expanding into

other, uh, verticals, uh, uh, without

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promoting ourselves to other verticals.

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We have a ton of like software

companies that already use us like

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SAS companies or the SAS company,

including rich panel, uh, that uses rich

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panel for its, uh, customer support.

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Uh, As of now, the platform is very geared

and we've, you know, promoted ourselves

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to e commerce market, in the e commerce

market, but practically the product could

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be used for other verticals as well.

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Upendra Varma: So, so I'm gonna talk about

the product differentiation here, right?

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So I mean, customer service,

customer support, these are age

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old industries and products, right?

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I mean, I could, I see tons of like,

every, every company has like, has

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gotta have some sort of product that

they've, they've been using, right?

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So, so how do you position

yourself here, right?

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So is do you believe that you're

bringing your product has got something

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that nobody has sort of done so far?

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Are you trying to revolutionize

something or do you believe there's

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already an existing market out there?

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Right?

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So how are you looking at this

whole, you know, product in space?

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Amit: Uh, the way that we are

thinking about this is firstly,

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yeah, the product is unique.

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There is nothing like this that exists.

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In the market, uh, there are

parts that are overlapping

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with, with existing solutions.

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Like if you use like a Zen desk or a fresh

desk, yes, that's a help desk or that's

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a ticketing system, but we have a very

unique way of looking at customer support.

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So if you go to Amazon, uh,

you know, traditionally, what's

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the definition of help desk?

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Somebody who does a phone call,

somebody who emails you, somebody

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who texts you, uh, or, you know,

contacts you on social media, the

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customer support bid starts from there.

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That's the, uh, uh, you know, width

of a customer support help desk today.

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We are going a few.

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What caused them to contact

customer support, right?

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So we analyze the reasons why you're

getting a call, why you're getting an

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email, and then we create an interface.

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So think of rich panel as everything

that a Zendesk kind of rest is dusk plus

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plus the my account section of Amazon.

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Right.

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Or, or the my account

section of, uh, like queries.

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So people are able to see their

orders, do returns, exchanges, manage

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their orders, manage their profile.

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All of those bring, um, and the

way the analytics force more and

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more operations to be front loaded.

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Because that's a seamless, effortless

experience with a customer, and it works

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out in the favor of the business as well.

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Upendra Varma: Makes sense.

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So, so I'm going to talk about the

talk about your customers today, right?

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So how many paying customers do you

have on your platform as of today?

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Amit: As of today, we have

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Um,

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Upendra Varma: And how

big are these customers?

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Right?

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So what, what sort of customers

are we talking about rates?

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How much do they pay you on average?

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Is it a hundred dollar deal, a

thousand dollar deal per year?

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Right.

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So what sort of deal range

are we talking about?

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I know there's going to be a spread,

but give me a sense of, you know,

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how big your customers are today.

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Amit: around $10,000 is what a, uh, you

know, average customer pays on a basis.

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80% of our revenues are in the US and

20% are, uh, you know, in, in, uh,

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Europe, Australia, uh, and, and uh, uk.

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Upendra Varma: Okay.

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And have you hit that 1

million ARR marks today?

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Amit: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Upendra Varma: Okay.

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And is that where you are

approximately in terms of revenue?

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Amit: Uh, no.

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So, uh, yeah, we've, we've

crossed 2 million in ARR, uh,

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and, uh, yeah, that's where we

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Upendra Varma: That's, that's fantastic.

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Right.

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So just, just help me understand.

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Right.

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So 12 months before, right.

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So where were you as a

company in terms of revenue?

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Right.

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So I just want to get a sense of

how you're growing before we deep

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dive into your growth journey.

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Amit: Sure.

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So, so, you know, we started in like,

we started billing our customers in

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like 2020, uh, you know, it took like

three to four months to sort of bill.

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And then every year that we've,

we've stayed in existence,

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we've sort of like doubled.

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Uh, that's that's where we've gone.

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So not like hyper explosive

growth, but but uh, decent growth.

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Upendra Varma: Got it.

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Right.

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So, so, so I'm assuming that you've grown

from over, let's say a million dollars

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to 2 million over the past 12 months.

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Right.

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So, right.

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So just help me understand, right.

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So where are you getting all

of these leads from, right?

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So where are they discovering you just

purely from a top of funnel perspective?

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Right.

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So where are they discovering you?

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What channels have been

working for you so far?

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Amit: Oh, that's an interesting

question because we have like Uh many

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channels, uh that that is sort of

work for us Uh, and the composition

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kept changing but I can give you like

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Upendra Varma: So I, I'm going

to focus on the past 12 months.

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I know it's going to be hard.

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Right.

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So just stick to the past 12 months.

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Right.

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So what's been

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Amit: word of mouth, uh, is

one word of mouth is one.

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Uh, second is, uh, you know, reference.

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So every company that uses rich

panel will have the branding

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like powered by rich panel.

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So if you go to like built with today

and you look at the top help desk

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solutions or ticketing systems, I

think we are already like number.

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or 14th in the entire

ticketing category, right?

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Uh, so that's the number

of implementations because

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we also have a free plan.

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So people tend to install it.

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And once you open the widget, you

see, Oh, this is very abnormal.

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Like this is something that

you've never seen before.

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It's not a live chat.

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It's not chat bot.

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I'm able to see my orders.

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I'm able to see like all

my conversation histories.

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I'm able to like troubleshoot, take

actions right inside that widget.

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So it sort of leaves an impression.

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And then every once in a while, uh,

out of the millions and millions of

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customers that are interfacing with

the rich panel widget, few of them

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will be business owners themselves.

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So they will get to us that I

bought something from this company

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and I liked the, uh, support

experience that I received.

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So I'm reaching out to you.

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So that's the second source.

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One is a direct word of mouth

saying that, Hey, I'm using it.

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You also use it.

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The second one is somebody

discovering us through that link.

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Third would be organic.

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What else?

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What else?

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Uh, we did a lot of paid ads

as well, which we stopped, uh,

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recently, uh, or, you know, we've

been like on and off experimenting.

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It's not like directly attributable,

but on several calls, I've

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heard people finding us.

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Through those keywords.

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So, so

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Upendra Varma: so, yeah, I'm

going to ask you a tough question.

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Right.

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So help me quantify this.

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Right.

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So let's say like thousand

customers that you've sort of

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acquired over the past 12 months.

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Right.

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So which one of them might have sort of

attributed to most of these projects?

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Can you just give me, give

me an approximate split here?

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So,

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Amit: top two channels that I said,

like, which is word of mouth and

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powered by rich panel, each would be

like, I think 15 percent and the 15%.

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Then search would be around,

like SEO is another one.

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SEO is also big.

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Uh, would be like 30% in

terms of number of leads.

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Uh, now it SEO maybe 30%, but it doesn't

necessarily mean that revenue, uh, is 30%.

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The most of the revenue comes

from that word of mouth.

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And that, uh, referral thing,

that's, that's the most, uh,

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powerful for us in terms of revenue.

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Upendra Varma: so talk

about this word of mouth.

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Right.

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So like, How do you even quantify this?

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Right?

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So like, how do you even

know like something like that

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is even happening, right?

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How do you sort of, sort of

incentivize your existing customers

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to go and spread the word about you?

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I know they like your product.

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They love the experience.

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They want to spread the word, but how,

how, how are you incentivizing them?

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And how are you sort of attributing

this new growth to that?

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Amit: We not, we should be like, you

know, doing some campaigns or we don't

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even have like a referral program,

which we ought to have, uh, but, but

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generally like, you know, I was doing

some customer support myself yesterday.

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I received a ticket from

a founder of a D2C brand.

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And then, uh, uh, when I received the

ticket one hour before that, uh, one of

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the account execs said that there's a

lead that came from the founder of so

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and so company, you know, uh, and then I

receive a ticket from that same person,

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Sam later on, you know, he had some issue.

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So I'm talking to him and then at

the end, I'm like, Hey, somebody

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reached out to us saying that

it was a reference through you.

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Uh, so thank you for

that and I appreciate it.

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Then I went on his Twitter.

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He's quite popular.

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He's covered many of these podcasts

and then he has done a few tweets,

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uh, you know, talking about his stack,

how he's upgraded and, uh, he has

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mentioned Richpanel there, so some

of it is like directly his friends.

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Some of it is like people who are

following him that could have clicked it.

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So that's just one of the many people

that they're just talking normally.

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Like this is what I use.

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This is what I do.

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And then people hear

it and then they adopt.

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And sometimes it's like competitors.

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Like they are keeping a track of what

the other people are using, what's their

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stack looking like, what's the upgrade.

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So they find us there.

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Some tech savvy, uh, entrepreneurs

will also go on like built with, or

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like, you know, they will look at

their competitor websites and they're

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like, Oh, they're using this app.

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They're using that app.

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And I want, I want to

implement the same thing.

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So that's how they go.

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And they say it.

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Every account exec has to capture,

how did you hear about us?

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Upendra Varma: Got it.

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So, and that's how you're getting

all of these numbers from, right?

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So I'm just, yeah.

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And just talk about this

powered by branding, right?

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So, I mean, these days I'm hearing

like every, like every SaaS founder

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who's got a product, which sort

of, you know, where they can sort

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of, which has this UI, right?

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They have this powered by element and

then it just drives on this viral growth.

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And all of a sudden you're seeing

tons of top of funnel leads, right?

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And let's just talk about

your experience here.

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Right?

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So, and, uh, like, I don't even see a

free plan on your, on your pricing page.

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Right?

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So like, how do I, like, how,

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Amit: It's going to come back.

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Yeah, it's, it's going to come back.

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Uh, you know, the marketing team

keeps experimenting, like, let's

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remove this, let's, you know,

experiment with a different CD.

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Like, even if you look at all the

CDs on the website today, they're all

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like, uh, get a demo, get a demo and

stuff, you know, start a free trial.

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So they keep experimenting.

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Um, but yeah, uh, the free

plan will be added back.

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They must be running some,

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Upendra Varma: So, so, so,

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Amit: know,

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Upendra Varma: so, so basically this

free plan is what's driving a lot

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of, you know, lead, a lot of growth

to yard, a lot of new leads, right.

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That's coming to your website, right.

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Just because of this part

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Amit: That's, that's my feeling.

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That's my feeling.

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You know, I've not like, you

know, the analyze it or I've

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not gotten into the depth of it.

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Like, you know, just five days

back, we got a review on the

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Shopify app store saying that, you

know, I'm very happy with the app.

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I've been using it.

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This is like the Apple of help desk.

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Uh, and I'm still on the free plan.

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So, and, and I installed

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And I'm like, really?

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Like he's been using it

for two years for free.

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So it's, it's, it's reviews like

those that make me anecdotally feel

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like, Hey, you know, we need to have

like, uh, more such people, right?

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More such people.

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And sometimes the reason it's

not attributable, because

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I'll give you another example.

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This is one company, uh,

that is on the free plan.

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Okay.

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And, uh, and we would not

have even discovered this.

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If we hadn't asked them, like, you

know, how did you hear about us?

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So we get a lead from a, uh, you know,

a D2C VC, uh, not, not a VC, a PE form.

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They acquire a bunch of these e

commerce websites and then they

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sort of buy from that, right?

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So they had 30 or 35 such stores.

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It was a 100k plus deal.

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And then I asked them, like,

how did you hear about us?

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He's like, Well, we had this one

company that signed up with you

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in December, we acquired them and

they showed us their stack and they

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convinced us that all the 30 brands

that we have should move to Richpanel.

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So all the 29 brands were using other

helpdesk solutions, but this one free

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plan convinced them like, Hey, all

the others should be coming to me.

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So, so that lead has to be

added to the free plan, right?

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But you have to dig deeper.

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If, if it gets created as a separate

company, separate account, you wouldn't

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even know Uh, sort of no, right?

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So that was like, that

was like one example.

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Even, even the other one that

I just, uh, mentioned, right?

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The one that called us the Apple.

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I will also open that.

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I think he's not using the app now.

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Let me just open it once again.

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Uh, yeah, he, he pretty much came

to us saying like, I'm not using it.

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I have moved on.

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I am in another company.

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Uh, Yeah, I'm in another company, but

I want to take a moment to appreciate

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because I, I hate using, uh, I don't know

if it should be bashing our competitors,

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but I'm just quoting my customer.

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Uh, yeah.

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Okay.

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Check this out.

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So this is, this is something

that, uh, Mark, who's the,.

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So basically this is a, uh, head of

from the head of customer support.

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And this email came from Jose Rodriguez.

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He used to work with a

company called Lunchbox.

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So I'm just reading something that

has public, uh, because he posted a

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review today, but he sent an email

saying, you know, don't need any help.

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Hi team.

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Don't need any help.

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Just wanted to take the time

to let you know I enjoy RP.

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RP is short for Rich Panel.

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More than any other helpdesk I've used.

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I've used Gorgias in the past and

currently use Zendesk with my other job.

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I can't stand ZD, Zendesk.

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Looks awful clunky, not

intuitive in the slightest.

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To me, RP is like, you Apple versus

Android UX is more intuitive, looks

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much more cleaner, polished, workflow

is much more intuitive, et cetera.

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And then he went on to say, say that he's

like, I'm ramming now, but RP feels like

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Apple of the help desk world right now.

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I appreciate it.

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Upendra Varma: Yeah.

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Let, let's move on to your

conversion strategy here.

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Right.

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So, I mean, like, I know it's

going, it's going to take a lot

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of you to convert a 10, 000 deal.

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Right.

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So help me understand the sales process

that you typically go through, through

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one of the leads that you've generated.

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Right.

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So what does it take?

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How long is the sales cycle?

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What do you do during those days?

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Just help us understand the process.

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So

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Amit: Actually not.

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So in a 10, 000 deal, you

can't really afford to have a

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very long sales cycle, right?

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Uh, it has to be quick, ideally within

three to four weeks, which includes,

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you know, either you're already on the

trial or, you know, the account exec is

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going to create an account for you, let

you trial for two weeks and, uh, you

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know, help you during that process, do

more calls with the other stakeholders,

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like It could be like the founder sent

an email to the customer support person.

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Go check this out, or the customer

support head or a customer support

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agent is exploring this on their own.

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So they pretty much will come on a call.

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They may need to do one or two more calls.

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Then they do a trial

and then they convert.

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So typically it's three to four weeks.

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It's all inside sales.

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Upendra Varma: it's typically

somebody discovering your website,

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starting a trial, and then you, you

ensuring that they adopt, use, use

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the product and derive value out

of it and then just convert, right?

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Amit: Yeah.

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But, but it's not.

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Yeah.

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I think after they have contacted

or taken a trial, it's four weeks.

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It could be that they've been hearing

about us for many months before

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that, but they didn't take an action.

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Uh, some people will come to us

after a year, they said, I evaluated

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you, but I didn't go ahead with you.

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I went with someone else.

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Now I'm coming to you.

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You know, so, so that also happens

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Upendra Varma: You've nurtured

them for quite a while before

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they actually sort of took that

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Amit: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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There, there is many, many, I think

there's many touch points that are

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not, not, I think, I know there's many

touch points could be like, you know,

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they saw some, they saw some posts,

uh, they attended some webinar, they

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attended some event, um, and then, you

know, they received emails from us.

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Uh, and uh, they, they saw us like in

organic search or something, and then

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they finally decided to talk to us.

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Upendra Varma: So I'm going to talk

about your churn here today, right?

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So like, how does that look

like for a business like yours?

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Amit: Uh, thankfully in the

last three months it's been, uh,

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good, like it's, it's close to

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Upendra Varma: you help us?

413

Amit: but

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Upendra Varma: Okay.

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Amit: 0%, it's close to 0%, right?

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And then before that, it was.

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Uh, continuously around like

2%, uh, every month, right?

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I'm including both like, you

know, chance and also downgrades.

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People come into us and saying, yeah,

I know you've reduced your pricing,

420

I want to come on the new pricing.

421

So, uh, you know, that, that, that

also is considered to be a reduction.

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Upendra Varma: Got it.

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And then do you sort of do anything

actively to sort of expand an existing

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account if yes, what do you do?

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Amit: You don't have that too much, uh,

now because, uh, a lot of them have.

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are on a limit that is a little

bit more than what they need.

427

A lot of those accounts like that.

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Uh, and the limits that

we gave to the initial few

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customers were pretty generous.

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So they don't expect, you know,

there's no expansion, uh, opportunity

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unless, you know, it's, it's like forms

like, Oh, I'm starting a new brand.

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New company, go there, new brand, new one.

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So the expansion is like very little.

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Like I've seen, I've seen like other

accounts where, uh, let's say you

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have like a hundred accounts, right?

436

20 of them will churn, like I'm talking

about an absolute number, right?

437

Uh, so if you, if you started with

a hundred dollars in the beginning

438

of the year, 20 are churned, you're

left with 80, but this 80 gives

439

you like additional 40 next year.

440

So you are, it becomes

441

Upendra Varma: is that

442

Amit: And then you report like,

443

Upendra Varma: so that's, that's my

question is how is that happening?

444

So are they moving on to

a different tire or are

445

Amit: No, it

446

Upendra Varma: hiring more

customer service steps within their

447

team or how has that happened?

448

Amit: So, so right now, if they hire more

customer support agents, because we've

449

changed the pricing recently, that's where

you saw the free plan is not available.

450

We moved to like an agent based pricing.

451

Before that it was based on conversations

and self service resolutions, but the

452

limits were a little too generous.

453

So there, the expansion

opportunities were only limited

454

to companies adding new brands.

455

Or, you know, starting or like, you

know, uh, starting new companies

456

and that's when they, that's

the only expansion opportunity.

457

Uh, and in that case, you know, we, we

would not see that we would see like

458

out of a hundred, if we start with a

hundred dollars in the beginning of

459

the year, we are left with like 85.

460

Um, and then we probably add 10

from extension, extension, uh,

461

expansion, uh, unlike others that are

getting 30, 40 more from this base.

462

Upendra Varma: So, and are

463

Amit: that's not,

464

Upendra Varma: so

465

Amit: our focus

466

Upendra Varma: so you move to a perceived

basis, perceived based pricing or

467

are you experimenting with it, right?

468

So how are the results

so far and what's, what's

469

Amit: both things, one is, one is, uh, I

think our customer, I need to reduce, I

470

want to make the product more affordable,

uh, because one of the reasons we are not

471

expanding that much is, uh, you know, we,

we charged a little bit more or, you know,

472

we sold a little bit more than needed.

473

Like the limits were set up in a

manner that you need some features

474

you need to take like a bigger plan.

475

Although you didn't need it.

476

So when you do that, yeah, you

book more revenue, but you know,

477

your expansion takes a hit, right?

478

And the number of, uh, the, the

top of the funnel also reduces

479

because you were able to, you drove

a lot of customers because of that.

480

Right.

481

So, so we need to prize ourselves to

make it accessible to more people.

482

That's going to be my focus.

483

And then the expansion

should naturally happen.

484

Well, for

485

Upendra Varma: So Amit, so I want

486

When you, when it all just started, right?

487

So how did you get those

first five, 10 customers?

488

Just talk about that, you know,

zero to one journey of yours.

489

So

490

Amit: first, uh, honestly,

the first 10 customers came

491

from, uh, contacts, references.

492

I've been in the e commerce world.

493

Uh, for, for quite a while now, and our

revenues are a bit inflated because, you

494

know, the first month you're starting,

you're starting with like, you know,

495

10, 000 in MRR because these customers

are like, Oh, what are you building?

496

We'll take it.

497

Right.

498

And honestly, the product wasn't even.

499

What it is today, like it was, it was

like, okay, we will see what we're

500

building kind of thing, but it was more

like, uh, you know, like, Hey, we just

501

want to take a part in like your success.

502

We want to help you.

503

And I'm very thankful to those customers

because many of them are also friends.

504

Uh,

505

Upendra Varma: talk about

that 10 to a hundred, right?

506

So that first scalable channel that really

worked and, you know, started giving it,

507

Amit: Interviews.

508

Talk to a lot of people.

509

Okay.

510

Don't, don't get, uh, don't obsess

over the, uh, solution like, like most,

511

uh, founders would do, including me.

512

Like, you know, you, you feel like,

you know, you've, you're a genius.

513

You've created something

extraordinary, but instead focus

514

on that's the problems, right?

515

Like, Uh, you know, every day

when you wake up, like who's the

516

buyer, who's the ICP every day

when you wake up, what's, what's,

517

what's sort of keeping you up late?

518

What's the challenge?

519

What are the, what are the things

that you're thinking, where

520

are you spending your money?

521

Uh, and you got to be in that category.

522

You, you need to have that mindset

because you're always competing

523

for attention, not really with the

competitors, but everything else

524

that is going on with their lives.

525

So you got to like get to the very

depth of their business and then.

526

Uh, sort of, sort of made the entire,

527

Upendra Varma: Yeah.

528

But what exactly did you do to

get from that 10 to a hundred

529

customer sort of base, right?

530

So apart from your contacts, right?

531

What else really worked

532

Amit: Listening to conversations,

listening to conversations.

533

Yeah, listen, like doing

a lot of interviews,

534

Upendra Varma: what do you mean by that?

535

So

536

Amit: and digging

537

Upendra Varma: how did you, how,

like, what did you use to do?

538

Like, what do you mean by interviews?

539

Did you use to talk to

potential customers?

540

Like where did they find, like, where

did you like, what channel did you use?

541

Like just talk about that process,

542

Amit: Just reaching out to potential

customers, people that I already know,

543

even those 10 that signed up, they

signed up for a product, but ended up

544

with another product that was completely

different because after talking to them,

545

we were like, Oh, we have this problem, we

have this problem, we have that problem.

546

And then out of all those, we were

like, okay, that's one problem.

547

That's big enough for our

appetite, uh, could be used

548

by a massive number of people.

549

And I do see like a lot of current

technology and IP that could be applied

550

that could make a huge difference, like

in case of customer support, it was

551

like, Hey, If you look at articles,

552

Zomato is, Zomato had to let go of

540 employees, you can just Google it.

553

And, uh, this is despite growing so much.

554

So why did they have to do this?

555

Because they implemented this section,

this, uh, my account section, which

556

started to resolve all their chats.

557

And you're like, Hey, what if we

take this technology and apply it to?

558

What Peter just told me or

what, what me just told me.

559

Like they're also, you know,

telling me about these problems.

560

They're trying to create chatbots,

they're trying to do this.

561

And someone like ZA or an Uber is,

you know, thinking 10 steps ahead

562

and they've created this technology.

563

We're like, okay, what if we mix the two,

make that a product and give it to them?

564

And by the way, we did interview

people from all of these companies.

565

We interviewed people from

Uber, Amazon, uh, Zito,

566

Upendra Varma: but they

didn't become your customers.

567

Right.

568

So they would have helped you build your

569

Amit: they said, they said we did look

for, but they did all confirm that

570

we did look for a solution like this

before we decided to build it an house.

571

Now they have a team of like a

bunch of engineers that are just

572

focused on that one thing, right?

573

Upendra Varma: got it.

574

Right.

575

So talk about like, have you

raised any external funding

576

so far to build your company

577

Amit: Yeah, so we, we

raised money from Sequoia.

578

Uh, we also got selected from

Y Combinator in year one.

579

The only reason I didn't sign up

with Y Combinator is because we were

580

remote and the whole batch was remote.

581

I didn't think we will extract too

much value, uh, from, from the Zoom

582

Upendra Varma: how much did

you raise in total so far?

583

Amit: uh, 2 million.

584

Upendra Varma: Okay.

585

Makes sense.

586

And like, what's, what's like,

how, how much, how big of a team

587

have you, do you have today?

588

Amit: We have, uh, 30

members, a little less than 30

589

Upendra Varma: So how many

engineers and how many in the

590

Amit: 15, 15 are in the product team,

15 are product, 5 to 6 would be, 6

591

would be customer support and success.

592

We offer 24 by 7 support.

593

Uh, so even if like the volumes

are low, we, we will staff it.

594

Uh, so people always have help.

595

What else?

596

What else?

597

Then two co founders.

598

We pretty much do anything and everything.

599

Uh, one person is in HR.

600

What am I missing?

601

Three people in sales.

602

So that's the composition.

603

Upendra Varma: So Amit, one

last question here, right?

604

So what's that next big milestone

that you're aiming for as a company

605

and how do you intend to reach there?

606

Amit: Good question.

607

So we have.

608

A few applications, which, which were

only, uh, you know, imagined in our head.

609

Like if something could happen, then

we could do something like this.

610

If this could happen,

then we could do this.

611

And with, with, uh, the API is

made available by open AI, all

612

of that has now become possible.

613

So without revealing too much, uh, uh,

what you're about to launch in quarter

614

one, uh, we're all working tirelessly

towards that is going to be a very

615

game changing because, you know, it's

not about just, you know, having a

616

very thin layer over AI and claiming,

Oh, we are doing something with GPT.

617

It's about like, you know, really

re imagining the whole thing.

618

Like if, if you were to

create a company today.

619

Uh, to solve this problem with the

available technology, how would you do it?

620

Right.

621

And you have to like re imagine the

whole block, like, you know, take off

622

your entire, whatever you built with

your Legos, take, take it off and

623

build it from the ground up and you

will come with something beautiful.

624

So that's what we are doing.

625

And

626

Upendra Varma: So, so I'm at like,

why, like my question here, right?

627

So why do all of this, right?

628

I mean, you've got a wonderful product

that people are allowing to use, right?

629

So why not just keep on expanding, right?

630

Just acquire more customers, get

to a point where, I mean, why

631

rethink your product strategy

or why expand on those lines?

632

Like what's the vision here?

633

Amit: because this, this technology

is going to enable, uh, adoption

634

across multiple channels.

635

So as of today, all the benefit that

I'm telling you, all the things that

636

I'm telling you is only available

on the website or the brand's

637

website or the brand's mobile app.

638

Uh, but if you look at a market

like us where 55 percent of the

639

conversations happen via email, Right.

640

Uh, 30% happen through the websites

chat, and 15% is like, uh, phone calls

641

or, uh, you know, social media or SMS.

642

So our technology is only applicable

to that 30%, uh, percent of the people.

643

But with ai, we can take this

technology to the remaining 70%,

644

uh, which was not accessible to us.

645

Upendra Varma: Yeah, that

makes a lot of sense.

646

All right.

647

I mean, thanks for taking

time to talk to me.

648

Hope you scale rich funnel to

much, much greater heights.

649

Amit: Thank you, Pendra.