Bootstrapping an AI Chatbot Startup with a Paycheck: Ankush Sabharwal, CEO of CoRover (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: How much money did you make this way – from advertising?

Ankush Sabharwal: It’s more money than we would have made through subscription.

Sramana Mitra: Really?

Ankush Sabharwal: There are four million users on the website and more in the app every day.

Sramana Mitra: Traffic volume was very large. You just created a way to monetize that traffic for both of you.

Ankush Sabharwal: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: Very interesting strategy. The monetization then started fairly early.

Ankush Sabharwal: It took around two to two and a half years to convert IRCTC.

Sramana Mitra: How did you survive for two and a half years? Everybody was working part-time?

Ankush Sabharwal: That’s correct.

Sramana Mitra: This would not have happened if you didn’t believe in bootstrapping with a paycheck.

Ankush Sabharwal: Absolutely.

Sramana Mitra: For about two years, you worked with Indian Railways. You start this advertising-supported business model. We are now in 2018?

Ankush Sabharwal: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: What happens next?

Ankush Sabharwal: We were all over media as soon as we went live with IRCTC. There are more travelers than seats. There’s a lot of people. 90% of those users would hit the system around 10 o’clock when they open the new tickets. Handling that much load is a huge thing. We were very new in handling the security and performance. When we went live, that was the first virtual assistant that any PSU organization had at that scale. There were banks using but not at that scale. We started getting a lot of inbound leads and legal notices as well.

Sramana Mitra: Why?

Ankush Sabharwal: It was from Land Rover saying you’re using CoRover.

Sramana Mitra: Brand stuff.

Ankush Sabharwal: Fortunately, we were good in legal. We applied for the trademark early. It was already registered.

Sramana Mitra: You were getting all these inbound leads. Was there a segment where the leads were coming from?

Ankush Sabharwal: All types.

Sramana Mitra: B2C?

Ankush Sabharwal: Purely B2C.

Sramana Mitra: Which ones have become good customers? Did you turn this into SaaS?

Ankush Sabharwal: We never told anyone we run ads.

Sramana Mitra: You positioned as a SaaS company.

Ankush Sabharwal: Yes, we have only three clients on an ad model. 99% of our customers are inbound. What happens next is COVID came. Our revenue became zero. No ad revenue. The traffic was not there.

Sramana Mitra: By the time COVID came, you had other customers?

Ankush Sabharwal: Just that time. We got inbound – NPCI. They’re the ones who create UPI. That was inbound. We are live with around 70 banks now.

Sramana Mitra: You’re big in the banking sector.

Ankush Sabharwal: Yes. We have more clients in BFSI.

Sramana Mitra: How big is the team and how did you build the team? Is it all in Bangalore?

Ankush Sabharwal: Bangalore and Delhi. I’m in Bangalore. During COVID, we had people working from home and they continue to work from home.

Sramana Mitra: How many people?

Ankush Sabharwal: Around 40 to 45 people.

This segment is part 5 in the series : Bootstrapping an AI Chatbot Startup with a Paycheck: Ankush Sabharwal, CEO of CoRover
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