The Exchanges

Q And in the time frame when you pivoted, did the revenues hit zero or near to zero because of that?

A Yeah, we almost got to zero. Uh, so I, you know, I, I told you, right, at peak we were about two, two and a half million dollars. Um, and then when we pivoted, we lost one of our biggest customers, uh, because they didn't like us pivoting and, you know, shelving the previous products. It's just, um, churned and that triggered a series of churn. Uh, initially we were a little reluctant because we were, you know, we wanted money to survive. But, uh, once we had some traction on the current product, we forcefully churned all the previous, uh, customers on the previous stack. So that got to zero in about a year and a half period from the time we pivoted. Um, and today it's all, all the, you know, the new stack that we sell.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, we almost got to zero.”

Q And how did you find your price point, right? Because 3000 dollars and 40,000 dollars are very different, right? There's a difference of an annex there.

A Evolutionary also, uh, uh, yeah, we had, I don't think we've revised much in the last two, three years. Uh, early days was a lot of discovery. So when we launched in 16, um, you know, July, there was, um, uh, we had absolutely no idea. So a lot of it was driven by what the American companies were doing at that point of time in terms of their pricing, uh, and mid-market enterprise says, you know, pricing is always, uh, you know, it's not, it's not transparent. It's not, it's not out there for you to, You know, decide. It's always very custom, you know, depending on your volume, data, et cetera, et cetera. So there are many pieces, uh, in SMB, sorry, mid market pricing. And we discovered that during, during the, during the course. Um, but, um, over, over the period of time said, uh, it became a very clear to us that the only way we are going to make money on this tool is when we position it as a, as a revenue making tool. As compared to just yet another marketing tool, because there's no dearth of those, right? There are just so many of them out there, each claiming to do a great job, um, improving your metrics and numbers, et cetera. So the way, the way we discovered ours was what was the real revenue impact we were bringing into these customers? Most of our customers are in the business of doing online farmers, online travel, education tech, fintech. There is direct, this is al…

AI assessment note: “the way we discovered ours was what was the real revenue impact we were bringing”

Q So in your evolution as a founder, what are the things that helped you during the past journey and what is helping you right now build for the future?

A I tell you, Sid, and it's very funny because I'm not, I'm not able to explain this very well to prospective investors also, but 10 years into this phase, right? And I would want to believe that the team's pretty smart. They may not be great, but they spent these years with me on the ground in the battlefield with the customers fighting out, fighting out with overfunded competition, fighting out with old economy companies, winning deals day, day, night, building a product that everybody was You know, laughing about five years ago. Now everybody just has, from a hygiene perspective, everybody has the same stack, right? They all, they all built it out. When we build journeys, everybody's like, you know, what is this? Who needs this in the very first place? And, and customers demanded journeys from them, you know, because the experience, what the experience with WebEngage, now everybody has it, right? To me, I think, I think, you know, it's very underrated In the, in the startup ecosystem, the amount of knowledge that you acquire by being close to your customers, by being, by being close to the pain point that they have is, it's, it's, you know, it's, it's phenomenally, um, valuable insight, which of course you need to translate into product and your go to market and your sales marketing, everything else. These 10 years for us, while we have not too many things to show for, the jou…

AI assessment note: “the amount of knowledge that you acquire by being close to your customers”

Q of personal Challenges during, during your journey, right? Investors doubted you. Your team doubted you, right? And, and for an entrepreneur, family is the bedrock of support, right? And then that shakes up, right? The confidence, the clarity, everything goes away for a toss. How did you manage to, you know, hold yourself during that time and, you know, Bring back the clarity and emerge even stronger during that process.

A You know, you're right. Um, very, very difficult phase, um, personally for me and, um, for everybody around me, uh, whether it's in the family, my, my team, um, my shareholders, investors, very difficult times, very, very difficult times. And, um, I won't go deep into the details of what happened, what transpired, but, um, I had, I had to be strong, you know, in, in, in all these moments of stress, the only way you're going to survive is standing your ground and being strong about what you want to be. Um, I have never thanked my team enough, my co-founder enough for being my pillar of support during that period. They were the only ones I could fall back on. And, um, it took me a lot of time, um, you know, Raj and Karthik, all these guys, um, on the, on the cap table, they were, they were very, very helpful and supportive during that journey, at least had a listening ear, right? Um, in terms of helping out what really had happened and how to course correct, what to fix. But the point being is, I'll, I'll go back to the point of staying strong. Um, I'll tell you what I did say, right? That one year period was probably very difficult. Um, I don't even want to go back and reminisce any of that period because it took a toll on me and my health. Everybody that I met after that, you know, um, potential hires, potential investors, potential customers, not like the average customer does…

AI assessment note: “the only way you're going to survive is standing your ground and being strong”