Relate.so

Simple sales CRM for startups and SMBs.

Founders

  • Christopher Chae
    • Experience: 7 years
    • Education:
      • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Information Systems and Information Technology & Marketing graduation: 2016
      • Last job:
        • Walmart - strategy manager (10 mos)
        • IBM - Strategy (1 yr 6 mos)
  • Sangyong Jung
    • Experience: 13 years
    • Education:
      • Yonsei University Master’s Degree, Integrated Technology graduation: 2014
      • Bachelor’s Degree, Business Administration
    • Last job:
      • Sentbe - Chief Operating Officer (2 yr 10 mos)
  • Arthur (Hyun June) Kim
    • Experience: 10 years
    • Education:
      • Yonsei University Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.), Business Administration _graduation: 2014
    • Last job:
      • Opensurvey (7yrs) - product manager (3 yrs 7 mos)

Features

  • It’s designed to be simple and easy-to-use

  • Leads & Contacts: almost like Notion
  • Deal Pipeline: kanban, almost like Notion
  • Unified inbox: 2-way email sync. Comments. Notes
  • Shortcuts

Target

Early-stage B2B founders & sales teams that need easier way to track customers and sales.

The global CRM market is approximately $120 billion, yet most companies still use spreadsheets as their primary tool for managing sales and customers.

And thousands of companies are still dependent on legacy CRM software that does not fit into how companies deliver sales today.

Alternatives

  • Salesforge (with VPN)
    • A big ecosystem, lots of services relate-startup-salesforce.png

    • Instead of competing with Salesforce from Day 1 - Relate’s strategy focuses on serving the underserved - especially companies in APAC.

  • Capsule
    • Just like relate :)
    • Lacks shortcuts
    • No native apps (only mobile)
  • Bigin
    • Lacks collaboration features
    • No shortcuts
    • No native apps (only mobile)
  • Notion
    • Relate is simple as spreadsheets, but it is a full-fledged CRM that integrates with your Gmail/Outlook. You can send/reply to emails in Relate and view email history for all your customers.
  • Relate links leads, customer lists, sales pipeline, and your sales notes together.

Log

  • 6 applications to YC
    • a talent marketplace for designers (didn’t apply)
    • a graphic design collaboration software
    • a product design collaboration software
    • a unified inbox software
    • a simple sales CRM software for startups

Mail

Hi Christopher –

My name is Mikhail. I am a senior Computer Science & Engineering student. This fall, I had an opportunity to research your product Relate as part of a term project in my Entrepreneurship class. My assignment is to search for competitors of your CRM solution. I found three similar businesses and will appreciate your opinion on them.

The first alternative is a SaaS cloud product called Freshsales CRM by Freshworks. It was launched in 2016 and serving APAC companies, especially Indian. It was awarded by Gartner, G2, GetApp and Software Advice. The solution has a completely free plan for small teams (less than 10 members), or “growth” plan €15 per user, per month. The feature list seems to be very similar to yours: they even have a ctrl+k launchpad. However, they additionally offer an AI chatbot feature with no-code builder. Also their plans offer more integrations.

There is also a Pipedrive CRM. Founded in 2010, Pipedrive is the global sales-first CRM and intelligent revenue management platform for small businesses. Today, Pipedrive is used by revenue teams at more than 100,000 companies worldwide. Their advanced plan, which costs €24.90 per user, per month, seems to offer same features. They additionally offer workflow automation (compared to the Zapier integration in Relate), but this feature is included in the plan.

Finally, there is a SaaS Capsule CRM. It was launched in 2009 and has identical features. They offer a free version for 2 users and paid plans starting at £12 per user, per month.

Can you explain why startups and smbs would choose your product over these alternatives? Is it price, design, some special unique features, or anything else?

Best, Mikhail Shishatskiy, CS-Phystech