Chellappa referenced Salesforce, Zendesk, Workday, and Oracle as examples of large enterprise software companies from which he has hired or considered hiring sales and marketing talent. He stated that hiring a VP of sales from Salesforce or Workday would likely be a mismatch for an organization at Engagedly's scale, citing differences in scale and culture. These characterizations reflect Chellappa's perspective and are not company-confirmed assessments of those organizations.
Chellappa also noted that during the COVID-19 period in 2020, all of his competitors were cutting staff while he chose to continue hiring, a decision he later described as a mistake that contributed to cash burn and financial difficulty in 2021. Specific competitor names in the HR software or performance management category were not disclosed.