After landing a dream internship at Google while studying at IIT Delhi, Swapnil Jain moved to San Francisco to work with Twitter for 3 years. His startup journey, according to him, was a result of FOMO. Seeing his contemporaries back in India starting their own companies with the influx of venture capital in India, Swapnil decided to move back to India and start Observe.ai.
In 2022, Observe.ai raised $125 Million in its Series C Funding led by SoftBank. Observe.AI is an Intelligent Workforce Platform that transforms contact centers by embedding AI into customer conversations, optimizing agent performance, and automating repeatable processes that drive revenue and retention.
Tune in to listen to his journey from being an engineer to first getting rejected and then getting accepted by Y Combinator and the challenges of running a multinational organization, with offices in the US and in India.
Key Takeaways:
1:47 - What is Observe.ai?
5:43 - Moving from Google to Twitter and starting Observe.ai
6:40 - How Swapnil came up with the idea for Oberserve.ai?
10:04 - Swapnil’s initial days of shifting from the US to India, seeking inspiration for a business idea
11:55 - How Swapnil found his co-founders?
14:48 - Tips on how co-founders negotiate ownership and equity?
19:23 - How did they choose the name Observe.ai and how did they navigate the challenges around copyrights?
22:06 - Swapnil’s journey with Y Combinator
25:08 - Insights on the funding journey of the organization
27:19 - What do pre-seed investors bet on?
28:13 - Benchmarks of investments for SaaS startups
31:07 - What is the difference between seed and pre-seed funding?
32:40 - How does the leadership manage a multinational team and what is the role distribution between the US and India?
36:53 - What was Swapnil’s process for hiring C-Suite and VP-level leadership?
39:11 - Swapnil shares with the SaaSBooMi community the names of C-Suite agencies he’s worked with in the US to hire for leadership
40:47 - What are the costs of working with these agencies in the US?
43:33 - How does Observe.ai stand out in the market?
45:31 - Why collaboration rather than competition worked for Observe.ai in the market?
46:35 - Hiring and retention during The Great Resignation
49:57 - How did they build culture as the foundation of everything at Observe.ai?
53:34 - Swapnil’s invitation to the SaaSBooMi community
Happy Listening!