How Limechat Grew from 4 to 60 Customers in 12 Months with AI Chatbots for E-Commerce (Interview with Co-Founder Aniket Bajpai)

Introduction and Company Overview

Nathan Latka

00:00Hey, folks. My guest today is Aniket Bajpai. He's the co founder and head of growth at limechat, the leading provider of customer support automation and conversational commerce for ecommerce brands. Aniket, are you ready to take us to the top?

Aniket Bajpai

00:12>> Yeah. Definitely.

Nathan Latka

00:13Alright. So the website is limechat.ai. Tell me about who you're selling to.

Target Market: Mid and Large E-Commerce Brands

Aniket Bajpai

00:19>> Yeah. So we basically target mid and large size ecommerce brands. So these are brands which have their own website with on Shopify, and we help them kind of give their visitors a very guided buying experience on their website and also leverage conversational channels like WhatsApp, Messenger, iMessage to give a complete end to end buying journey.

Pricing Model and Average Revenue Per Customer

Nathan Latka

00:39And, Aniket, when you sign these customers up, what are they paying you on average per month to use your technology?

Aniket Bajpai

00:46>> They pay around $1,000 a month. $500 depending on their size. Of course, is pay as you go based on the usage that they do, but that is the typical amount that we pay.

Usage-Based Billing by Conversations

Nathan Latka

00:55How do you measure usage?

Aniket Bajpai

00:59>> So we charge in the basis of number of conversations that happen on our platform. Right? Since we give a guided buying experience, which is essentially a conversation with their users. So we charge in the basis of number of conversations that we have.

Customer Count: 60 Brands

Nathan Latka

01:12I see. And how many customers are you now working with today?

Aniket Bajpai

01:16>> We're working with 60 brands now, currently.

Nathan Latka

01:18Six zero?

Aniket Bajpai

01:20>> Yes.

Nathan Latka

01:21And when did you guys launch? When did you get your first customer?

Company Launch and First Customer

Aniket Bajpai

01:24>> We we launched just around a year back in September 2020. We started in March, and we got our first customer in September.

Nathan Latka

01:32First customer. Who was the first customer? Do you remember?

Aniket Bajpai

01:35>> Yes. Yes. It is a brand called Bella Wheat Organic. We're very happy to be working with them right now as well, and we are constantly in touch with them. They have actually also grown more than 10x in the past one year because the ecommerce brand space has been booming, but it has been an absolute pleasure.

Revenue Run Rate and Year-Over-Year Growth

Nathan Latka

01:49Now can we take 60 customers today paying $500 a month? You guys are doing about $30,000 a month in revenue. Is that right?

Aniket Bajpai

01:57>> Yes. That's about right.

Nathan Latka

01:58And where were you doing exactly a year ago in November 2020?

Aniket Bajpai

02:04>> In November 2020, we just had four to five customers with whom we were working very closely to build our product to achieve product market share. So in terms of revenue, we were we were at roughly 2 or $3,000 a month.

Nathan Latka

02:18That's incredible. Yeah. So you guys are obviously growing really nicely here now, up to 60 customers. Have you done all this, and I get bootstrapped, did you decide to raise?

Fundraising History and Y Combinator

Aniket Bajpai

02:28>> We we did raise a convertible note last year. So, yeah, we are not good start in this particular startup. Right? We actually got selected into Y Combinator as well, but we so we raised from there, and we were able to raise a convertible note after that. So that is what has gotten us going. We didn't dilute too much in this in that.

Nathan Latka

02:47Mhmm. And so when you how much did you raise in your pre seed last year?

Convertible Note Details

Aniket Bajpai

02:52>> Right. So we raised around $750k USD, and we we raised it as a convertible note at an uncapped valuation, and a discount of 20% to the next round's valuation.

Nathan Latka

03:03Yep. When do you think you might be doing a next round so we know what that actually becomes worth equity wise?

Aniket Bajpai

03:09>> Yes. Yes. We will be doing the next round very soon in the next one or two months.

Nathan Latka

03:12Oh, okay. So you're basic I mean, you're basically raising now then. How much do you wanna raise?

Current Raise: Targeting $20M Valuation

Aniket Bajpai

03:16>> Yes. Yes. We're raising around 4 to $5,000,000 at around $20,000,000 valuation because we want to grow really, really fast. We feel that we have a cheap product market fit, and we just want to push the credit. So so, yeah, we're actively looking to raise.

Nathan Latka

03:30Do you have a lead investor yet?

Aniket Bajpai

03:33>> Yeah. We're in talks with several people now.

Nathan Latka

03:35I see. And and and do you think you'll be able to get a $20,000,000 valuation doing 360,000 a year right now in revenue? That's a fairly substantial revenue multiple.

Aniket Bajpai

03:45>> Yes. Yes. I believe that since we have a very very good growth rate, we're growing at 30 to 40% month on month since the past six to seven months. And we can kind of take a forward multiple. When the round will actually close, it will already be three months. And our revenue will double at least. So we're kind of taking a multiple on that. Right?

Nathan Latka

04:05I see. And that is how we are kind of justifying the

Aniket Bajpai

04:08>> valuation.

Growth Strategy: Shopify and Outbound

Nathan Latka

04:09Tell me more about the strategy you guys are using.

Aniket Bajpai

04:10>> You have

Nathan Latka

04:11a very specific niche you're targeting, these ecommerce brands. How are you going from five customers last year to 60 today and to 600 next year, hopefully?

Aniket Bajpai

04:18>> Yes. Yes. So we have two major acquisition channels. One is through Shopify and the Shopify ecosystem, which is a group of communities and, like, blogs and basically word-of-mouth because the Shopify ecosystem is super connected. And, of course, you kind of get some inbound leads to Shopify. So that is one major source of leads for us. The second

Nathan Latka

04:39is do you get per month from Shopify?

Aniket Bajpai

04:43>> Current we have just started a Shopify approach, so we get around five to 10 leads per month. The majority of our leads actually come through our outbound approach. We get around 30 leads per month at least through that, and that is through sending outbound messages on email, LinkedIn, stuff like that to What

LinkedIn Outreach and Target Personas

Nathan Latka

04:59what job titles do target on LinkedIn?

Aniket Bajpai

05:02>> We sell to the VP of marketing and the VP of customer support. Right? Because we have two products now internally. One is remarketing product, and one is just a customer support automation bot. So for for these, we target these two personas, respectively.

Nathan Latka

05:15Okay. And what's that first message sound like? Give me a flavor of it.

Aniket Bajpai

05:20>> Sure. So let me tell if I talk about the customer support automation product, it basically it says that you customer support giving good customer support, being in touch with your customers is important. And you if you actually want to do that, you no longer need to put 10 to 15 agents, right, and pay them $50,000 a year to do that. You can just have one human, and you can put limechat spot, and you can get incredible

05:50>> you can give consistent, incredible support to all all of your customers and improve your retention. And this is being used by a lot of top eight and nine figure brands in the world like Mama, Twelfth and Saints. So, like, if you if this sounds interesting to you, please jump on a call and let's move ahead. Right?

Nathan Latka

06:07That feels like a really long message to send as a cold message on LinkedIn. Is is that really what you send? If it's it's a lot of text like that?

Aniket Bajpai

06:16>> I of course, the message is this was, like this had a lot of points in the which is actually sent in the first three messages. The main the main thing we focus on is the value and the clients that we have in just two to three lines. Right? The copywriting is obviously much much better. But but yeah. Like, the the the one liner is that you can give great customer support experience and spend no additional amount.

Founding Team, Equity Split, and ESOP

Nathan Latka

06:43I see. Aniket, take me back to to when you guys got going. Is it just you, or how many founders do you have?

Aniket Bajpai

06:48>> Yes. We have I I have another founder. There are two founders, both of us.

Nathan Latka

06:52Yeah. Two founders. And did you guys split equity fifty fifty at the start?

Aniket Bajpai

06:56>> Yes. Yes.

Nathan Latka

06:58And so today, obviously, we don't you still own 50/50 because the 750 k raise hasn't converted to equity yet. Right?

Aniket Bajpai

07:05>> Yes. Yes.

Team Size and Bangalore Ecosystem

Nathan Latka

07:06Yeah. But you anticipate have an ESOP pool.

Aniket Bajpai

07:09>> Right? So that is one part, which is

Nathan Latka

07:12How big is that? We

Aniket Bajpai

07:13>> we allocated 10% as an ESOP pool because we, yeah, we wanted to give our employees a much bigger share in the ownership, and we have around 20 employees now.

Nathan Latka

07:23Oh, wow. Okay. So you you own 45%. Your cofounder owns 45%. You have a 10% ESOP pool, and you have 20 employees right now.

Aniket Bajpai

07:31>> Right. Right.

Nathan Latka

07:32How many engineers?

Aniket Bajpai

07:34>> I would say around 10 to 12 engineers.

Nathan Latka

07:37And and where are they all based, Aniket?

Aniket Bajpai

07:40>> We are based in Bangalore in India.

Nathan Latka

07:42What's it like? You know, I wanna get over there. I hear so many great founders building companies in Pune, Chennai. We have Freshworks IPO ing. We've got Kobai three sixty with Saravana. It just there's so much energy over there. What's it like?

Aniket Bajpai

07:54>> Right. So for the entire Indian startup ecosystem, there are several nodes, but Bangalore is like the central hub. Right? The weather is obviously great like Silicon Valley, but the startup ecosystem especially is awesome, especially for SaaS. Right? There are a lot of great SaaS companies here like,

08:12>> a lot a lot of them. Right? They have obviously not reached IPO level like Freshworks, but they are pretty pretty big, like, in terms of ARR. And the main thing is the energy, right? There is an area in Bangalore where like even if you go in a cafe, you'll find people discussing their startup because that area is filled with entrepreneurs and startup founders and folks who are working at startups. So so that is something which makes

08:37>> it very, very exciting each and every day to be surrounded by people like that, to surrounded to be surrounded with the best talented folks who are putting their energies in the right direction. It's gotta say it

Famous Five Rapid Fire

Nathan Latka

08:48sounds sounds like a lot of fun. Let's wrap up here with the famous five, Aniket. Number one, favorite business book?

Aniket Bajpai

08:55>> The hard thing about hard things.

Nathan Latka

08:57Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying?

Aniket Bajpai

09:02>> We're following Jeff Bezos.

Nathan Latka

09:04Really And

09:05number three, what's your favorite online tool for building limechat?

Aniket Bajpai

09:13>> Slack is definitely super useful. Yeah.

Nathan Latka

09:16Number four, how many hours of sleep do you get every night?

Aniket Bajpai

09:20>> I sleep seven and a half hours every every night.

Nathan Latka

09:22That's good. And what's your situation? Married, single, kids?

Aniket Bajpai

09:25>> I'm single.

Nathan Latka

09:27Okay. No kids. How old are you?

Aniket Bajpai

09:29>> I'm 25.

Nathan Latka

09:3126?

Aniket Bajpai

09:32>> Oh, 25.

Nathan Latka

09:33Oh, 25. Okay. Great. Last question. What's something you wish you knew when you were 20?

Aniket Bajpai

09:41>> I

09:44>> mean, there are definitely a lot of things, but the main thing is that you should pick pick the absolute right people to work with because, like, the the the idea or the problem or what you're doing is all secondary, the people whom you work with, that that that defines the output, and that makes you have the most fun, like, if you pick the right people.

Nathan Latka

10:04Mhmm. Guys, limechat.ai, AI chatbot for ecommerce brands. They were doing $3,000 a month in revenue a year ago, now doing $30,000 a month. 10 x year over year growth. They raised 750,000 seed last year uncapped, now targeting a $4,000,000 raise at a $20,000,000 valuation. We'll see if they can get it done. Team of twenty building in Bangalore, again, scaling up into these mid market enterprise accounts. And, Aniket, thank you for taking us to the top.

Aniket Bajpai

10:28>> Awesome. Great great coming to your podcast.

Nathan Latka

10:33One more thing before you go. We have a brand new show every Thursday at 1PM Central. It's called Shark Tank for SaaS. We call it deal or bust. One founder comes on, three hungry buyers, they try and do a deal live and the founder shares back end dashboards, their expenses, their revenue, ARPU CAC, LTV, you name it, they share it and the buyers try and make a deal live. It is fun to watch every Thursday 1PM

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