It takes a village to build a business! Flyte has the right foundation that's making it grow everyday!
“It takes 30% of my time, just capturing key takeaways from client meetings and updating them into CRM! I wish my company had a CRM that could automatically capture client notes” - an offhand comment by a friend who is an account executive at a top business consulting and services firm!
Sales is the oxygen for a company! It was hard to believe that a salesperson who should be making revenue every hour was spending time doing redundant documentation and admin tasks. When we heard that a salesperson struggles to manage all the back-to-back meetings while staying on top of every client conversation to be able to build a healthy revenue pipeline, we saw an opportunity!
We initially thought of building a platform that automates the hassle of manual note-taking and tracking every action item but we quickly realized that for large teams, it’s crucial for a sales leader to visualize how every sales rep is performing! This transformed the initial idea into building a platform that can help companies with complete visibility into how their frontline managers are performing and what their customers are thinking at any point in time.
As part of Founder Institute Seattle, we learned the power of customer development and building a true vision for Flyte. We validated our hypothesis and potential solution by interviewing more than 400 sales professionals. By leveraging our network and guidance from mentors (especially those with sales backgrounds), we learned a lot about the sales processes, important integrations and willingness to pay for a product like Flyte. The Founder Institute crew helped us lay the foundation of our business and taught us what's needed to build a company! We graduated as one of the top startups from FI Seattle in 2021. Thanks to the entire crew at Founder Institute and especially Jeremy Zaretzky, we got our first VC investment when we were a pre-product company. It’s amazing to see when accomplished leaders believe in you and appreciate your effort!
Within a few months of getting early users and building an initial wireframe of our product, Techstars invited us to join their 2021 cohort. When one of the largest accelerators in the world puts a stamp of approval, you know that you are onto something! After going through the orientation and getting to know the Techstars community and #GiveFirst mindset, we knew that this affair will last long! It was impressive to see how Techstars team closely works with every company and the way global community of successful founders is ready to help at every stage! We found some amazing friends and mentors through this journey.
With every interaction with Techstars mentors, experienced founders and tech geniuses - we as founding team have learned that perseverance and extensive network of the right individuals would be a way to go in the startup world. It’s not just the mentors and investors that helped us move to the next level, even our early customers made inroads to success by providing timely feedback and suggestions.
It's been a fabulous experience being part of such a vibrant community that believes in giving first and helping each other during some of the most difficult and decisive phases of a startup journey. After the Techstars demo day presentation, so many attendees and investors appreciated our business idea and offered further help. There is no better way to learn the business than starting your own!
You need a stamp of approval once and then it gets easier every time you approach others from the industry. This is true in acquiring customers, getting investors or building followers on your online web presence. We did see a glimpse of it when big players from the industry started inviting us to share our story including accomplished podcast platforms, AI conferences and pitch competitions. Ai4, one of the world's top AI conferences, invited us to present Flyte in Las Vegas! Many international organizations are also interested in showcasing Flyte technology on a global scale.
We are excited to connect with anyone who has more ideas and enthusiasm to join our community. If you're interested in talking about our journey or just want to bounce around some cool ideas - feel free to connect on Linkedin!
Shilpa Sharma, co-founder & CEO of Flyte — She has previously worked in Fortune 100 companies and made significant business impact through her strategic planning and influencing skills. Shilpa is a tech enthusiast and has been advising startups from Founder Institute. She graduated from INSEAD business school and has lived in France, Japan, India and North America. Connect with her on LinkedIn here.
Chhavi Singh, co-founder & CTO of Flyte. He is passionate about technology and building AI based platforms that can help businesses automate repetitive processes. As an engineer turned VC turned entrepreneur, he is able to put on different hats at different times. He completed his MBA from Tuck School of Business, AI professional program - Machine Learning from Stanford University and has experience working in multinational corporations across the globe. Connect with him on LinkedIn here.
Keywords: Flyte, Sales Platform, Techstars, Founder Institute, Startup, Customers, Mentors, Founders, Startup Journey
Leveraging the power of AI in sales can help with elements like customer preferences, product insights and reflections on the effectiveness of a sales call that leaders cannot micromanage at all times!
Salespeople needs to understand the nuances of what the customer is experiencing by asking questions and listening!
Shilpa, fourth on the list of 35, is a firecracker in the sales world!
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