Startup Interview with Krishna, Founder/CEO, Apty

HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your background.

I was born in India, studied in Europe, and settled in the US. I Founded a global IT consulting firm specializing in helping companies implement or optimize complex enterprise software in 2010 and recently founded Apty (in 2017), an Enterprise Digital Adoption Software helping companies realize the ROI on their software investments.

I am an avid cricket fan, father of two boys, and have been happily married for the past 14 years.

What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do?

Apty helps companies get more out of their software investments by making it easier for employees to onboard and use web-based applications. Apty offers on-screen guidance, usage analytics, and actionable insights for improving software and process adoption.

What is the origin story?

This company and product started out of my previous companies' services. From both the company and consulting viewpoint, I could see things weren’t working. Companies would invest millions in a new system and try to get it operational - only to abandon it because of a poor or failed adoption. I knew if I could build a product to solve adoption challenges, there would be a huge market for it.

We built the original version of Apty, called letzNav at the time, for one of my consulting clients. Based on our success, we then realized a public version of the software in 2017. We rebranded as Apty in 2019 as we started to add more features beyond on-screen guidance.

What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?

I love how responsive the team is. Our innovation is driven by what we learn from listening to our customers. As we learn more about their challenges, we continue to optimize our product. For example, the earliest version of Apty included an option to export the on-screen guidance out of Apty into a PDF with screen grabs.

It was a fast way for companies to create documentation of their processes. We learned from listening to our clients they would use these PDFs inside their learning management systems. So, we developed a feature where they could export Apty content as a SCORM object and quickly import it into an LMS.

If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?

Knowing me, I would always be on the lookout to start a new product or business.

At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics?

Our success is always measured by our customers’ success. We are constantly measuring our contribution to our customers and how genuinely we are moving the needle for them in terms of savings and efficiency. Coming to our business, I’m looking at three main things: new deals, renewal rates, and expansions. We’re seeing our average deal size increase and more customers expanding Apty to use on more applications. The momentum is huge.

What’s most exciting about your traction to date?

Closing our Series A round for $7.5 million in July 2021. It is even more exciting considering it came less than 10 months after our prior round of funding. In those same 10 months, we’ve also deployed Apty to more than 3 million new users.

What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why?

We’re using AI to analyze software usage and make predictions about when and if users will complete a business process. Predictive analytics will be a game-changer in the digital adoption space. I am always excited about emerging technologies.

What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform?

I like that the platform focuses more on the next generation of innovators and the latest tech trends.

What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself?

Keep pushing through adversity. I would have never guessed we’d have our best year and close two funding rounds in the midst of a pandemic.

What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing?

To be honest, everything I’ve learned this year is a surprise one way or the other. The biggest thing that this year has taught me is that things can change in a matter of minutes, and so being open to change and adapting to the times really pays off. I have learned to unlearn many things that I used to hold very close to me. If we can close 2 rounds of funding in the middle of a pandemic, then literally anything is possible.