Autobound is a B2B sales intelligence startup that is reimagining and simplifying the way businesses create relationships and sell their products and services. The company’s founders, Daniel Wiener and and Kyle Schuster, were determined to make the process more efficient and effective, but they weren’t sure how to take their ideas from concept to reality. That is, until they decided to join the San Francisco chapter of the Founder Institute, a pre-seed startup accelerator based in the Bay Area.
Daniel and Kyle, Denver natives and friends of 19 years, were among the top 1% in sales performance at Oracle and Yelp. They know firsthand the challenges, pitfalls and inefficiencies businesses face in generating B2B sales, including:
- Buyers are looking away from salespeople when making purchasing decisions, – salespeople are not keeping up with buyers’ changing expectations, and it shows.
- Although US-based companies are spending more than $900B annually on sales initiatives, quota attainment is at an all-time low.
- Research shows that for the fourth year in a row, lead generation remains the #1 priority for sales executives.
- Sales leaders need to empower their sales teams to produce and scale highly relevant, personalized and targeted sales outreach to engage prospects and reach their quota.
With these issues in mind, Daniel and Kyle enrolled in the San Francisco chapter of the Founder Institute startup accelerator to launch Autobound and their ground-up solution to make every salesperson an expert who knows who to contact, what to say and when to say it.
During their 14 weeks in Founder Institute, Daniel and Kyle say the intensive program and expert mentor feedback helped them validate their business model, build an MVP, develop a branding/messaging strategy, create financials, refine their pitch and more. When they graduated, Autobound was incorporated, had a team in place and was ready to disrupt the sales technology landscape and redefine how businesses sell.
Autobound co-founder Daniel Wiener says, “This is the platform Kyle & I wish we had back when we were working in sales. What gets us excited is that we’ve created a one-stop shop that integrates all the necessary, yet highly time-consuming sales tasks to produce that one perfect message. The biggest game changer is that it can be scaled. I used to spend 30 minutes across five tools creating a message that would hopefully engage a prospect – but with Autobound, now it’s done instantly.”
Key features of the Autobound sales intelligence and lead generation platform include:
- A B2B sales intelligence platform that suggests fully composed, expert sales messaging for persona-based outreach. Autobound’s proprietary persona-based intelligence leverages unparalleled prospecting capabilities. These personas enable users to replicate the sales practices that led Daniel and Kyle to be top-tier sales performers at Oracle and Yelp.
- Autobound produces and suggests highly-targeted, individualized, and predictive sales messaging in fully built multi-step, multi-channel sales campaigns. Autobound’s individualized sales engagement recommendations are personalized to each user and the buyers they target. The platform listens to the companies users are trying to sell into, and composes humanistic messaging by integrating news events, CRM activity, social networks, industry specific expertise, competitive information, and more – all optimized to what’s most likely to generate a response.
Since graduating Founder Institute, Daniel and Kyle have joined the Founders Lab–FI’s follow-on program for graduates–which has greatly facilitated their fundraising efforts. Along with raising funds, they’re also focusing on building their brand and product strategy alongside some of the world’s most successful sales leaders including Jim Dickie and Barry Trailer, founders of CSO Insights, as well as Chris Cabrera, founder and CEO of Xactly. All three industry experts joined Autobound’s Advisory Board.
Next, Autobound’s founders plan to continue to build-out and refine the platform’s sales intelligence and lead generation features, while also growing their list of beta testers. Interested in learning more about Autobound, scheduling a demo or joining their beta list? Contact Daniel Wiener or Kyle Schuster to learn more.
Visit the Founder Institute website to learn more about how it can help you jumpstart your startup through its structured business-building process and its global network of startup experts that are invested in your success. Since 2009, Founder Institute has helped more than 3,500 startups raise over $800M funding, get into seed-accelerators, generate traction, recruit a team, build a product, transition from employee to entrepreneur, and more.
