12 & Counting…
It’s that time of the year. It’s 13th Oct.
Exactly 12 years ago on this day, Ankit & I launched a first version of WebEngage. Much has changed in the world around us since then. Looking back, the two of us couldn’t be more grateful for everything we have managed to achieve in all these years. Thanks to you for making it happen.
Happy 12th, WebEngage.
I have happily taken all the love and brickbats that came our way all these years. It’s time to shift the spotlight on men and women who have been true warriors in this journey. This post is a tribute to them and my team of 450+ folks who make WebEngage happen. Everyday.
Startup journeys are all about believing. Most startups fail because their founders lose conviction much sooner than they should have. Ankit has been the unseen pillar of strength in our 12 year journey. Both WebEngage and I are blessed to have him. Here’s one for the album..
Talking about believers, we have found one more! Have you met Ankur yet? No? Well, his marketing campaigns would have surely met you 😎. Ankur has been a long time friend of WebEngage and an advisor to me. He came onboard to scale our marketing two years ago. His work on scaling the marketing unit, #StateOfRetentionMarketing podcasts and our flagship event EngageMint are legendary. The team that makes these happen are no less than legendary themselves. They say — it takes a village to raise a child. Here’s ours..
Ankur now owns the customer success charter at WebEngage. And, if you are a WebEngage customer, this is the best thing to have happened to you and all of us at WebEngage— we couldn’t find a better cheerleader for your cause. Meet the man..
Something great happened to us last year — we hired someone as a dessert spring to give us some respite from the scorching sun. Well, what a spring it has been! Hetarth joined us about a year ago to lead our MEA business with a missionary team based out of Dubai, Riyadh and Africa. Hetarth and team have made giant strides across GCC and African countries to consolidate our #1 position in these regions.
There are only 3 things one needs to build a great company — Culture. Culture. Culture.
A company is only as good as its people. And, people are only as good as the culture code they believe in. WebEngage is a priviledged company. We found believers very early in our journey. These are men and women who have stayed with us despite odds and near death situations. In hindsight, some of those were events that shaped our character too.
Manish, who is currently building our product for Shopify, ConvertWise, was our first hire 12 years ago. He is helping Apurva who joined us last year to build and scale ConvertWise. Before joining us, Apurva was working for one of our investors and observed us closely for 2 years before jumping ship.
Apoorv, who is now focusing on building our channel partner ecosystem, has been around for 8+ years — he was one of the very first sales person we hired in the team. Keyur, who joined us nearly 9 years ago to build the customer support/success functions, is now building a Center of Excellence unit to enable our teams to win.
We are now a team of 450+ people multi-country, multi-ethnicity team across 5 locations globally. Mili, our Director of HR and Recruitments, has been at the driving seat to ensure we continue to find men and women who are misfits like the rest of us.
Shreya has been yet another great addition to the team. She joined us an year ago as our Chief of Staff. If you had asked me the utility of this role 5 years ago — I’d have told you it’s a waste of money and talent 😎 .. Well, ask me now! We are now a data rich company across all our functions. And, as a founder, there’s nothing more comforting to see teams take more informed decisions.
WebEngage is a culture first company. We have stayed that way for 12 years. And, today, it’s my promise to you that we will keep it that way.
Thanks for our team of 450+ men and women who believed.
Thanks to the 800+ customers who believed.
Thanks to our investors who believed.
Thanks to a network of 50+ partners who believed.
And, thanks to you.
In the meantime, my other startup is growing well too. Albeit, I do pray each day to the almighty to slow down the growth on this one a little 😊
Happy 12th once again, Team WebEngage.
Signing off now.
See you when I see you.
-Avlesh
