Innovation

‘If selling software is hard, then buying it is even harder because people worry about the risk of getting it wrong’

AI platform Agilepitch will automate repetitive tasks that slow down the process of closing a deal

James Kelly is cofounder of Agilepitch

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Olive Keogh
Thu May 9 2024 - 05:00

James Kelly and Dipeche Sharma are the co-founders of Agilepitch, an AI platform designed to automate many of the repetitive tasks that slow down the process of closing a deal in software sales.

Kelly spent two years working as an account manager in software sales so he has first-hand knowledge of the pain points.

“Basically, everyone on the sales team was spending valuable time doing the same tasks over and over,” he says. “They would often spend at least a week completing an RFP [request for proposal] because these requests frequently run to several hundred questions. In the main, however, these questions are generic, making this aspect of the sales process ripe for automation.”

Kelly gave up his job to focus full-time on Agilepitch and spent the first six months learning everything he could about sales and buyer enablement and surveying the market. By the time he met Sharma, he had spoken to more than 500 people who had recently bought a piece of software and he had taken on board their experience of the sales and buying process.

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“I got a lot of negative feedback. And if selling software is hard, then buying it is even harder because people worry about the risk of getting it wrong, given the investment involved,” he says. “Software may have moved on but the way we buy and sell it has not.

“With Agilepitch, companies get a centralised platform for documents that will become the single source of correct information for all its sales-related collateral. It integrates with the other pieces of technology already in use, such as the company’s communications platform or knowledge base or CRM function, and it uses AI to ‘learn’ about the client company. There is no manual transfer of data.

“The system enables sales teams to access information they need – to complete a customer request, for example – quickly and efficiently in real time and there is an indexing feature with automatic updates. We help our clients to set up the system and onboard all of their users. There is no sharing of data with us. It remains siloed and unique and specific to the company using our system.”

At a technical level we have the edge in the market as we’re providing automation with AI whereas other systems are focused on data analytics

—  James Kelly

Kelly has an economics background combined with a passion for technology, while Sharma is a software engineer with a master’s degree in systems engineering and experience in data management and AI applications.

“I met Dipeche at a start-up event. We hit it off straight away and quickly discovered a shared vision of bringing sales enablement and AI together,” says Kelly. “Because of Dipeche’s background, we were able to build our engineering team and system capabilities very quickly and we’re also working with an AI PhD student at TU Dublin, who has considerable experience in AI applications.

“Our system is already being used by one customer, with others waiting to come on board when we go fully live later this year.”

Agilepitch’s potential clients are those selling B2B enterprise software.

“These sales typically have a long lead time, with implications for revenue flow. At a practical level, our system can reduce the time it takes to close a sale while at a technical level we have the edge in the market as we’re providing automation with AI whereas other systems are focused on data analytics and don’t have or are only now adding the AI piece,” says Kelly, who adds that the greatest sales potential for the system is in the US.

Agilepitch is a bootstrapped start-up with a subscription revenue model, which has relied on founder time rather than money to develop its sales co-pilot tool. In pure cash, Kelly estimates the spend to date at about €35,000, and he is on the New Frontiers programme at TU Dublin, which comes with a small stipend.

The next step for the company is to open a pre-seed fundraising round of €250,000.

AI: Artificial intelligence