Welcome to a brand new series on HackerNoon, called Power Leaders -- interviews with tech leaders who are leading change, innovation and disrupting their respective industries.
To launch, I wanted to begin with someone that I have been following since his most recent company’s inception. Not only because AI is currently a mainstream craze, but because it’s an interesting use case especially in current economic times. Innovation and automation are top buzz words in the tech industry and have become key focus areas for companies who are working to get back to growth stage levels.
Thank you to Ravi Vadrevu, Founder and CEO of Kalendar AI, a B2B AI sales generator, or in their words, “book new revenue on autopilot with AI.”
After raising “$3.2 million in pre-seed funding from 500 Startups; “The Lean Startup” author, Eric Ries; VC firms Village Global and Metaplanet; and 20+ angel investors,” in 2021, I suspect we will see even bigger things from them in the coming year.
SE: Thanks so much for taking time to share with the HackerNoon community, Ravi. What innovations are you bringing to your industry? What sets you apart from your competitors?
**RV:**Our company offers an AI-powered solution that helps businesses solve the pain point of customer acquisition. By automating the outreach process, we enable businesses to engage with potential customers more efficiently, freeing up valuable time and resources.
It’s only possible now with the advent of LLMs (large language models) - we use Email GPT, Presentation Deck GPT, and calendar scheduling, which streamline the customer acquisition process and generate more leads. Combined we call it SalesGPT
SE: What is a recent win or announcement your company just celebrated? Why does it matter?
RV: OpenAI featured our usage of their technology that helps us predict someone’s customer based on a pitch - similar to how google’s page rank algorithm fetches the right website)
SE: What pain point(s) does your company solve?
RV: Our company solves the pain point of customer acquisition for businesses by providing an AI-powered solution that engages with potential customers and convinces them to take a meeting. This eliminates the need for businesses to spend valuable time and resources on manual outreach, which can often be time-consuming and ineffective. Our platform includes audience matching, outreach email GPT, presentation deck GPT, and calendar scheduling, all designed to streamline the customer acquisition process and generate more leads. By automating this process, we help businesses to save time and money, while also increasing their overall conversion rates and revenue. Ultimately, our goal is to make customer acquisition as painless and efficient as possible, so that our clients can focus on what they do best - running and growing their businesses.
SE: What are your company’s industry major challenges right now?
RV: One of the major challenges facing our company in the B2B industry is the high cost of acquiring new customers. This is particularly difficult for small businesses who may have limited resources to allocate towards customer acquisition. The cost of acquiring a single customer can be prohibitively expensive, making it challenging to scale and grow our business. As a result, we are constantly exploring new and innovative ways to reduce customer acquisition costs and optimize our marketing strategies to make our services more accessible and affordable to our clients. Finding effective solutions to this challenge is critical to our success, and we remain committed to overcoming it in order to better serve our customers.
SE: What stories aren’t currently being told about your industry that your B2C or B2B audience should know?
RV: There are many stories that our B2C and B2B audiences should know about the incredible opportunities that AI presents to our industry. One exciting aspect is the ability for bootstrapped businesses to thrive and compete with their venture-backed counterparts. With AI, anyone can start building a business, regardless of their background or resources. For example, automation tools can be used to streamline operations such as article publishing without requiring any coding knowledge. The impact of these advancements on publishing businesses is significant and should not be overlooked. We believe that these untold stories can help to inspire and empower our audience to take advantage of the many opportunities that AI has to offer.
SE: How do you envision your business changing in the next 3-5 years?
RV: Over the next 3 to 5 years, our main goal is to achieve our mission of automating revenue generation. Currently, we are focused on the first year of our plan, which involves building the distribution layer through email mailboxes and connecting businesses via sales meetings utilizing LLMs. Moving forward, we plan to introduce LVMs, or large video models, which will be responsible for pitching to potential customers and collecting sales proposals while being supported by their AI personas. This next phase is crucial to our long-term success, and we're excited about the possibilities it presents.
SE: What changes do you think are necessary for your industry to stay competitive in current economic times?
RV: To stay competitive in the current economic times, the industry needs to embrace emerging technologies such as AI, Machine Learning, and Data Analytics, prioritize sustainability and social responsibility, foster collaboration and partnerships, and invest in employee development and training. These changes can help businesses streamline their operations, gain insights into consumer behavior and market trends, attract and retain customers, access new markets and expertise, create synergies, and stay ahead of the curve in a fast-paced business environment. Ultimately, businesses that adopt these changes can achieve increased efficiency, profitability, and competitiveness in the industry.
SE: What measures has your organization taken to ensure you're driving towards the most important goals?
RV: One of the key things we do at the core is fostering international culture keeping remote work at the forefront. That stems from my personal experience building companies but it has proven to be successful. All our employees haven’t met in person and are thriving with 2X more productivity. It’s only possible if you are principled in hiring — sometimes not everyone you hire is a fit, and it’s easier to take calls than the amount of overhead invested in new hires at in person companies. The change is clear and it’s reflected in how companies are waking up to staff cuts this year.