Welcome to the latest installment of SaaSlife SPOTLIGHT, where we shine a light on innovative SaaS companies and their leaders. Today, we are thrilled to feature Gabe Naviasky, Co-Founder of Leadbeam.
Gabe shared insights into his founder journey, the challenges of building a startup, and the exciting future of Leadbeam.
The Product: Leadbeam
Dan: Gabe, thanks for joining us. How are you today?
Gabe: I'm doing well, Dan. Thanks for having me on.
Dan: Can you give us a simple overview of Leadbeam and what you're doing?
Gabe: Absolutely. We've built a tool for outside sales reps or field sales reps. A common problem they face is that after meeting clients in person, they have to wait until the end of the day to enter all their notes into their CRM like Salesforce or HubSpot. This either takes a lot of time after each meeting or results in incomplete data entry. Leadbeam solves this by allowing reps to speak into their phone, leaving a 10-second voice note, and all the CRM fields automatically update. It saves reps about five hours a week and ensures better note-taking with more context since they don’t wait until the end of the day.
Dan: What is fresh is when it's top of mind, right? How does Leadbeam capture this immediate post-meeting context?
Gabe: Exactly. Think of a conference scenario where you meet many people. Capturing the context right after each meeting ensures you don’t forget details and helps convert those leads into meetings and ultimately revenue.
The Origin Story
Dan: What was the moment where you thought, "This is a problem we need to solve"?
Gabe: The origin story comes from my co-founders, Kennan and Soham, who were working with insurance companies stuck in legacy systems. They needed a better way to update their CRM. I was also exploring voice AI applications at the time. When we connected through the YC co-founder matching platform, we realized this was a perfect fit given my experience in sales, marketing, and CRMs. That's how we started Leadbeam.
Dan: How did you find the co-founder matching process?
Gabe: It was like using a dating app. You talk to many people, and it takes time to find the right match. But when I met Soham and Canon, we clicked immediately. We all believed in leveraging CRMs and voice technology as the medium of the future.
Ideal Customer Base
Dan: Who benefits most from using Leadbeam?
Gabe: Our ideal customers are teams with five to ten or more salespeople who spend a lot of time in the field, meeting 20-40 clients a day. These are the people who need to capture conversations on the go, not after the fact.
Case Studies and Feedback
Dan: Is the product already out there with clients? Any case studies to share?
Gabe: Yes, we work with some Compass agents in San Francisco and have seen great results in residential real estate. They used to lose a lot of leads after open houses because the data wasn’t entered into the CRM timely. Now, with Leadbeam, they capture all leads immediately. Another example is SumUp, a POS provider. Their field team used to only log 25 out of 40 required daily meetings due to time constraints. With Leadbeam, they now log all meetings, allowing better strategic decisions.
Looking Ahead: The Next 12 Months
Dan: Where do you see Leadbeam in the next 12 months?
Gabe: We plan to secure a pre-seed round and aim for 600K in ARR with about 60 customers. We'll continue to focus on mid-market and enterprise customers while refining our product based on feedback.
Route to Market
Dan: What's your typical route to market for Leadbeam?
Gabe: We attend specific conferences, not just B2B SaaS ones, but also payment and door-to-door conferences. We also rely on outbound LinkedIn and email campaigns and thought leadership on social media. Relationships are crucial, and we leverage partnerships where we offer 10-15% of the first year’s revenue to those who refer new customers.
Partnership Program
Dan: How can someone interested in your partnership program get involved?
Gabe: They can reach out to me at gabe@leadbeam.ai or find me on LinkedIn. If they reference this podcast, we'll offer 15% of the first-year revenue for any referrals.
Leadership Development
Dan: As a new venture with fairly new co-founders, where would you like to see development as a leadership team over the next 12 months?
Gabe: We need to stay adaptable. Startups are unpredictable, so maintaining a positive attitude and being ready to tackle challenges daily is crucial. It’s a game, and we need to enjoy the journey.
Advice for Aspiring Founders
Dan: What advice would you give to someone launching a new SaaS product?
Gabe: Start small and focus on solving a real problem. Be ready to invest some money and time to build an MVP. Use resources like Upwork and LinkedIn to find people who can help build your product. As a founder, handle customer interactions and support personally to learn and iterate quickly.
Future Functionality
Dan: What new functionalities are you planning for Leadbeam?
Gabe: We're expanding beyond lead management to opportunity and deal management. We also plan to integrate with vertical CRMs like LeafLink and become a voice-powered Zapier, allowing users to complete work actions via voice commands.
Funding
Dan: Are you open to funding conversations at the moment?
Gabe: Yes, we are actively fundraising. If anyone is interested in the voice, CRM, or sales productivity space, they should definitely reach out.
Thank you, Gabe, for sharing your journey and insights with us. Leadbeam sounds like a game-changing product for field sales teams. Stay tuned for more episodes of SaaSlife SPOTLIGHT, where we continue to explore the world of SaaS innovation.
Conclusion
Great immediate value to be gained - when you consider the loss of integral date through lack of immediate action - voice-integrated note taking is an absolute must!
Add in the ability to manage your follow up actions and Leadbeam really is an opportunity for you help your field sales operators deliver more!
To listen to the full interview - please check it out!
Stay tuned for more insights from SaaSlife SPOTLIGHT as we continue to shine a light on the brightest stars in the industry.