Clear ‘Why,’ Sharp ‘How’ & WebEngage

Avlesh Singh and Ankit Utreja weaved strong strands of ‘WHY’ into their entrepreneurial DNA. While the former looks for ‘WHY’ in every action of his, the latter takes a deep dive into ‘WHY’ of every situation that unfolds. The result has been a strong cofounder webbing, and a dynamic venture

Well, it seemed like an outrageous move. Burrp buddies Avlesh Singh and Ankit Utreja were into the early days of their maiden venture in 2011. And the passionate engineers were leaving no stone unturned in ironing out possible wrinkles on their neat entrepreneurial suit. The maths was simple, and the equation indeed looked outrageous. The greenhorns had Rs 18 lakh in their accounts, WebEngage had made a promising beginning, and the cost to ensure a bump-free and smooth ride was a hefty Rs 10 lakh! Yes, you read it right. The duo didn’t have a domain name with them, the Australian guy with the dotcom registration was residing in the US, and the price tag to buy WebEngage domain was a staggering Rs 10 lakh.

Well, it was natural for nerves to jangle. “Are you sure we are doing the right thing,” Utreja looked for an unflinching reassurance. “So much money just to buy the name! We will be left with just Rs 8 lakh,” he revealed his apprehensive state of mind. Avlesh, meanwhile, was looking for a quick fix. “If we know the ‘why,’ then this is how it must be done,” he dished out his comforting take. The rookies ended up buying Webengage.com, the formative journey of the five-member team continued without drag (except for a minor hiccup which had all the makings of a full-blown crisis, and we will come to this part later on), and the friends were confident that dhandha bann jayega (we will make money.)

Five years later, in 2015, the duo confronted a twisted avatar of dhandha bann jayega. Now the bigger, and an existential, question staring at the cofounders was: dhandha kaisey banega (how will we make money)?

Well, it was a valid question to ask, and the reason was a no-brainer. The hero product of WebEngage had started to stagnate, the average contract value (ACV) had plateaued at $3,000, and the cofounders were in a fix. What was the point in running a company which could not grow but just survive? What was the point in continuing with the hero product if it was no longer heroic? What was the point in calling oneself one of the best in the market automation business when the value leader started to look like a plain-vanilla offering? All kinds of unsettling questions started to haunt the cofounders.

The dense clouds of ambiguity, though, started to become clear when Avlesh and Ankit moved away from ‘what’ to ‘why.’ And there were two crucial WHY to probe. First, why did the duo start their entrepreneurial journey? It was to do something which nobody was doing. It was to build something that nobody was building. It was to create a value which nobody was offering. It was to always stay out of the comfort zone. Suddenly, after five years, the ‘why’ behind the journey went missing. “We didn’t want to become a company which was simply into push notification and emails,” says Avlesh. His partner added his bit. “There was no fun in sending a million emails every day,” reckons Ankit.

Pivot, Pivot, Pivot

Something was awfully wrong, and it had to be fixed on a war footing. Though the startup was doing a great job on the consumer retention front, there was a catch. The story was playing out only on the website and dashboard. The B2B company lacked a mobile experience and this is what the consumers wanted now. What this meant for the cofounders was one simple thing: a complete reboot, which in technical parlance means PIVOT. Suddenly, the ‘why’ behind the pivot became clear.

Pivot, interestingly, was not an unfamiliar word for the cofounders. WebEngage had its rudimentary beginnings in WebKlipper, a side gig which the cofounders started during their Burrp days. It started as a highlighter tool built as plugin for Firefox, and was only used by Ankit, Avlesh and a small team. Gradually, it gathered eyeballs and users. Buoyed by the initial traction, the friends aggressively worked on the idea for six odd months and garnered some 25,000 users among academia, designers, freelancers, lawyers and all kinds of professionals.

There was a small problem, though. There was no dhandha. The product was free, hence the friends couldn’t monetise. When the enterprising duo reached out to the VC community to seek funding, they got a royal snub. Cold emails, hot presentations and energetic pursuits didn’t work. “Nobody believed in us. Everybody pointed out that the product won’t make money,” recalls Avlesh. So the cofounders decided to make it a paid product, pressed the pivot button and WebEngage was born.

Now in 2016, the pivot button was back in the lives of the duo. And there was again a clear ‘why’ behind the pivot.

Okay, so does this mean that if one is clear about the ‘why,’ then ‘how’ becomes an easy nut to crack. Right? Wrong. The ‘how’ in the case of WebEngage was not a simple one. Though salvation lied in making a pivot, it was easier said than done. Reasons were many. First, WebEngage had already had a five-year journey. Hitting the reset button, therefore, was not easy. Second, though the cofounders planned a product pivot, the reality was that the entire organisation had to pivot in terms of technology, mindset and culture. “We needed to train our own sales guy,” says Avlesh.

Drilling a new and an alien idea was challenging. The rockstar salesmen of the company, who so far had mastered the art of closing a deal in a week, were now being told that the ‘week gig’ was a dead past. Now it would take at least six weeks — it might stretch to eight weeks as well — to close the deal. “Imagine the plight of these guys,” says Avlesh. All these years they lorded in selling a $3,000 ACV. No, suddenly the amount leapfrogged to $20,000! The third prospect, and the roadblock, was equally frightening. Avlesh explains. “When you have the luxury of capital, the pivot becomes easy,” he says. “You know that you have the cushion,” he adds.

Million-Dollar Question

WebEngage, unfortunately, didn’t have the cushion of VC dollars. “Nobody gave us $2 million for the pivot, and said ‘go, figure it out,” says Ankit. Ironically, when capital was readily available for the cofounders — and it was between 2012 and 2015 — who were wooed by the VCs, the duo remained hyper selective in their approach. The guiding principle for raising money was still the same word: WHY. Ankit explains the striking ideology. “Our DNA is very different. We were never in the race to raise money,” he says. The company, he adds, never capitalized itself beyond what was required for the business.

And even when the cofounders were out in the market, they behaved selectively and asked VCs two pointed questions. First, what was the expectation from the cofounders? There has to be a seamless matching of mindset and ideology. After all, capital must not change into capital punishment. Second, Avlesh and Ankit knew that though they are one of the best in the game, they are not sexy. There are other players and rivals who were more loaded, more VC friendly, and had raced ahead of WebEngage in terms of funding. “So, why we? Why are you betting on us,” was the question that was liberally volleyed at the funders.

Back in 2016, WebEngage lost all engagement with the venture community. And the reset mode gave the rivals more room to flex their arms. “We became a distant third player,” says Avlesh. The problem being a number 3 in India, he points out, is that nobody bets on the third player. “All the money is cornered by first and second,” he says, explaining the harsh reality. “The phase between 2016 and 2020 was the most difficult for us,” he says. In fact, the cofounders initiated sell-out talks in 2017, and came close to selling the company in 2018 and 2019. Well, that looked like the only option. The business started picking up after the pivot but demanded cash. Unfortunately, neither the cofounders had any, nor VCs queued up to fill the tank. “Fortunately, we didn’t sell,” says Avlesh.

The reason to step back from the brink was again a deep introspection into ‘why’ behind the act. Was it a situation that can’t be salvaged? The answer was an unequivocal no. It could be managed. All the cofounders needed was to hang on a bit longer. If so, then why press the sell button? Was the pivot not showing promising results? If the answer was yes — and indeed the results were encouraging — then why even entertain the idea of selling out? Were the cofounders exhausted and wanted to exit? The answer was no. If so, then why sell? “We have always been long-term thinkers and players,” says Ankit. The tiring circumstances tested the character of the entrepreneurs who almost played into the hands of the cruel fate, and were about to make a fatal judgement error. “It’s usually those fleeting moments when one has to hold on to one’s ground,” says Avlesh.

Over a decade into the journey, a clear WHY and a sharp HOW have helped Avlesh and Ankit build WebEngage into a flourishing SaaS venture. AN ARR of $25 million, over 800 global customers and more than 400 million monthly active users is no mean achievement. The gritty cofounders — who label themselves as foolish — are now hungry for more. It’s still Day 1, and it’s still the starting line. And as far as the outrageous move of spending Rs 10 lakh is concerned (remember the starting of the story?), the answer is simple. Every bold move looks and sounds outrageous to begin with. But if one has a clear WHY, then outrageous morphs into courageous. And fortune favours the brave. Here’s to the brave and gritty Avlesh and Ankit, and their engaging story.