In our newest success series, we’ll be unveiling the amazing stories of e-Res companies that chose Xolo as their ally in e-Residency. Salesforge.ai: a pioneering force in AI-driven sales execution, is our first guest.
Salesforge.ai just secured a sweet €500K pre-seed investment from an impressive lineup of backers: BADideas.fund, Spring Capital, Fiedler Capital, and super-angel Maciej Zawadzinski. Today they’re poised to revolutionize B2B sales.
Our conversation with Frank Sondors, CEO and Co-founder, delves into their visionary approach and their journey with e-Residency.
“Hey Frank! Could you tell us about yourself, introduce us to Salesforge, and share the inspiration behind its founding?”
Hello there, I’m Frank — CEO and co-founder of Salesforge.ai. My career in sales has run a long gambit, from leading large sales teams to taking on the role of SVP Sales at Whatagraph.Salesforge.ai was born out of a vision for leaner sales teams with more programmatic execution of conversion-boosting, funnel-driving sales strategies. We emphasize multi-source AI personalization focused on email deliverability, complemented by a flexible pricing model to address the inefficiency of oversized teams.
Throughout my career I’d begun to notice that the old cold-call, spray ‘n pray methods of volume-based email models performed by expensive sales teams just weren't working anymore. B2B sales leaders now faced a more challenging landscape and a dilemma: buyer personas are weary of generic outreach & email deliverability standards from providers are growing stricter.
Salesforge offers two products: Salesforge and Mailforge. They tackle the dual challenges of creating personalized, deliverable emails while providing robust infrastructure for domain and mailbox management, ensuring our clients can navigate the evolving sales landscape with effective agility.
“When did you realize you’d all created something massive?”
When my co-founders Dovydas Volodko, Daniel Sanchez and I scaled Salesforge to $1M in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) in under 10 months, all while operating with a lean team of just four people. It was a tremendous achievement that filled us with pride, clearly signaling we had built something significant in a remarkably efficient way.
“What strategies or approaches have contributed to the company's growth?”
The cornerstone of our company's growth has been "dogfooding," or using our own software to scale our business. This approach has involved primarily conducting cold email outreach to the U.S. market. Through this strategy, we've identified that our primary target market consists of B2B startups at the pre-seed, seed, and Series A stages. A significant secondary market for us includes sales development agencies tasked with pipeline generation for their clients.
Leveraging our own products has not only demonstrated the effectiveness of these strategies, but fine-tuned them based on real-world use and feedback.
“Any advice to someone who’d consider starting their own SaaS company?”
One crucial piece of advice for anyone thinking about starting their SaaS company is to find a co-founder as soon as possible. Utilizing platforms like Y Combinator's co-founder matchmaking can significantly increase your chances of success. Partnering with a co-founder can bring complementary skills, shared workload, and mutual support, all of which are invaluable in the early stages of building a company.
“What’s the most challenging aspect of running an online business for you?”
For me, the most challenging aspect currently is recruiting the top talent for our company. This involves not only finding individuals who excel in their field but also ensuring they are the best fit for our team's culture and values. It's about striking a balance between skill level and personality fit, all while prioritizing our talent needs to align with the company’s strategic objectives and growth plans.
Navigating this complex landscape requires a keen understanding of both our immediate and long-term needs, making the hiring process both critical and challenging.
“How’d you decide to operate under the e-Residency framework?”
Estonia is a no-fuss country where everything is streamlined. Our decision was heavily influenced by the desire for an efficient and hassle-free business environment. The appeal of conducting all business online, coupled with the ability to communicate easily in English with all institutions, set Estonia's e-Residency apart.
This was a stark contrast to the high levels of bureaucracy found in many other countries, where navigating institutional interactions can be far more complex and language barriers present additional challenges.
“What are the biggest benefits of operating your company with e-Residency?”
The most significant advantage of running our company with e-Residency is the flexibility it provides to scale a rapidly growing business to unicorn levels from anywhere in the world. This global mobility and operational freedom are unparalleled, allowing us to expand and innovate without geographical constraints.
“How does running an e-Residency company compare to your experiences in Lithuania?”
The e-Residency program is a godsend. There’s nothing I would improve about it. I find the systems in Lithuania are not well designed for foreigners, hence it attracts many companies with foreign founders in Lithuania to base their business in Estonia for easier management.
“Lastly, can you share where you see Salesforge in 5 years?”
In five years, I envision Salesforge evolving into the next Pipedrive within the sales execution category. Our aim is to revolutionize how companies approach sales, making them leaner and more effective by harnessing the power of autonomous sales execution capabilities.
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Run your digital business from anywhere in the world with Estonian e-Residency – Xolo Leap will help you apply, set-up and manage your business, including tax reporting, expenses, professional invoicing tools and much more.
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