Aeroleads injects tech in old approach to prospect generation
A company’s hunt for prospects and leads for their products or services is indeed time-consuming. This is done through – working the network, attending conferences or gatherings, staying up-to-date with recent trends, and combing the Internet for the right information.
This is where AeroLeads, aiming to inject technology into the ‘older’ approach, comes in with their product – a prospect-generation software that mines contact details from the Internet. The software can condense the information gathered into a directory that can be transferred to MailChimp, HubSpot, or SalesForce.
Inception
Pushkar Gaikwad, the Founder of AeroLeads, is no stranger to entrepreneurship. He had started a venture named InBoundio (a white-label marketing software) and another called WorkMonk (a platform to connect with freelance professionals). His experience founding various ventures made him realise that prospect generation was extremely tedious. And the way information was scattered around the web, did not make the search any easier. A contact’s bio could be on LinkedIn, email on Facebook, and his/her contact number somewhere else.
The idea was conceptualised last December and the venture was formally launched this April. AeroLeads is run by a team of three based in Bangalore. The AeroLeads team took time to iterate their product and conduct rigorous testing to ensure that results were consistent across multiple searches. Pushkar believes that AeroLeads is a useful software-as-a-service (SaaS) product for Indian businesses. Someone who has developed a product, or is running a BPO or an IT services company, can find contacts of global businesses with email addresses and phone numbers of decision-makers.
About the product
AeroLeads has a web-based extension that can be added to the browser, (thus the process can be conducted both on the phone and on the computer). Once the search is performed and the relevant prospects are selected, AeroLeads takes about 35 seconds per contact to source and collate information of the contact’s phone number and email address. The user of the software is charged one credit each time AeroLeads is able to provide the contact details. No credit is used if data cannot be found online. The venture earns its revenue through monthly subscriptions.
Pushkar believes that the software can save a considerable amount of time for all professionals across functions such as sales and business development. They could spend anywhere between 5-10 minutes (assuming they know which website to check) or more if they are unable to narrow down on the appropriate sites. AeroLeads is able to separate the required data from the noise and increase the efficiency of the process.
Market response
Although it is too early to comment on the revenues or profits, Pushkar mentions that in 50 days of releasing the beta version, AeroLeads has got 250 plus B2B users. The founder thinks that the high rate of early adoption is a good sign and hopes to increase the number of users in the coming days. AeroLeads’ Prospect and Lead Generation LinkedIn Group has 190 plus users and about one-third of them have signed up for AeroLeads.Pushkar not only reached out to a number of people in his network but also actively promoted his venture through marketing forums, Reddit, and SEO optimization.
So far, feedback for AeroLeads has been positive. Pushkar maintains that the hardest part of building the venture was to figure out a product that was in demand in the market. He believes that his knowledge about market demand and user preference has gained more depth because of his professional experience. He hopes to channel those learnings into his newest venture and build features that will truly add value to customers.
Way ahead
The team at AeroLeads would like their product to go places – an upcoming startup, a freelance artist, or even a Fortune 500 company. The product is light and easy to use. It does not come loaded with multiple databases, instead it refers to the biggest repository of data available – the internet.
