How Avlesh Singh hit startup hell, got bruised, bled, and rebuilt WebEngage

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It was like being in a bad dream where you know something bad’s about to happen, but feel immobilized and powerless to do anything about it. Avlesh Singh, co-founder and CEO of user engagement software maker WebEngage, had that feeling when he silently watched one of his largest and most important clients walk away last year.

WebEngage, as the name implies, began in late 2011 as an onsite toolkit to engage users on the web with messages and notifications. Last year, in step with the big shift to mobile in Asian markets, Avlesh decided to transform WebEngage into a more holistic product that would enable multi-channel engagement across web, mobile, apps, email, and text messages, along with user data analytics to make it more contextual.

The gestation period was long – nine long months. It was during that time the client wanted features which would only come up in the new WebEngage. And Avlesh watched helplessly as this client’s irritation grew until he crossed over to a rival.

“I didn’t want to give out any feelers on the new product before we were ready with it,” explains Avlesh. “So for nearly a year, my customer was stuck with a product we had been selling for three years.”

Instead of adding features one by one, Avlesh wanted to build a holistic product. “We were trying to build something that will define the future for us, by changing how customer engagement is done,” he points out.

WebEngage was already among a handful of SaaS startups out of India with global revenue streams. But it wanted to position itself as a US$100 million revenue company, and not a US$20 million revenue company. That would require a total reengineering of the product.

And that took time. And there were a number of competitors in the market offering cheaper products. To retain clients became increasingly difficult. Trying to make them believe that something good was going to happen, while holding his cards close to his chest on what was going on backstage – that was the hardest part.

“The customer notion around us for a year was that nothing new was being offered. We were not cool any more!” recounts Avlesh.

He watched that customer drift away and go for a different product – it was a good customer and a large one for the company. Days like those, “when you feel things could have moved faster than they were moving,” are every entrepreneur’s nightmare.

But now, after that gut-wrenching 2015, WebEngage relaunched this week as a multi-channel user engagement suite, integrating web messages, in-app messages, emails, push notifications, and text messages into an all-in-one product. For Avlesh, a warm glow has taken the place of last year’s pain, as he looks forward to all the possibilities of this onsite toolkit for the mobile age that tracks users across devices.

Avlesh Singh and his co-founder Ankit Utreja.

A unified view of users across channels

WebEngage clients are mostly in ecommerce and travel, such as Snapdeal and Yatra. When a new user lands on the Yatra site, for example, she’s greeted with a pop-up message offering a discount on the first booking. That’s WebEngage in action.

Engaging the anonymous user

Conversion becomes the new watchword

Choosing the right markets to be in