Behind the idea that spawned a multimillion-dollar business

In 2014, Sunil Thomas, Anand Jain, and Suresh Kondamudi had left their jobs at Indian media conglomerate Network18 to start up CleverTap.

The mobile marketing platform’s birth was inspired by a recurring “painful problem” that the trio faced as engineers whenever marketers wanted to personalize their website or app in order to engage with users.

So the team built CleverTap to enable just that. While the early days of the company were challenging – it took more than two years before it would make any money – the co-founders knew they had a revolutionary product on their hands. Despite that, they never imagined it would become the multimillion-dollar business that it is today, with revenue numbers doubling every year for the past four years.

Sunil Thomas, CEO and co-founder of CleverTap / Photo credit: CleverTap

On this special episode of Startup Snapshot featuring Thomas, CleverTap’s CEO, tells the story of how the business came to be, sheds light on the early days of its operations, and discusses the lessons he’s learned from his experience.

Timecodes:

00:00 – Lunch, friends, and a revolutionary idea
01:42 – Not your typical chief technology officer
02:19 – Leaving for the US
02:43 – Yearning to bring his expertise back to India
03:35 – Meeting his co-founders
04:36 – The problem that inspired a solution
06:11 – Setting up CleverTap
08:23 – The challenges of the early days
09:41 – Getting validation and receiving funding
12:05 – Cashing in the first check
13:21 – Back-to-back years of doubling revenue
14:01 – A global business
15:17 – Let loose and enjoy the ride

Download the full transcript here.

Featured interviewee:

• Sunil Thomas, CEO and co-founder of mobile marketing platform CleverTap

Essential reading:

• Why We Changed Our Brand Name to CleverTap
• For more of Tech in Asia’s coverage of CleverTap, click here

CleverTap helps businesses build valuable long-term relationships with customers by giving them access to real-time behavioral analytics and a platform to engage users on the right channels at the right time, with a message that resonates.

Visit CleverTap’s website to learn more.

This content was produced by Tech in Asia Studios, which connects brands with Asia’s tech community. Learn more about partnering with Tech in Asia Studios.