Simpu empowers businesses to communicate seamlessly with their customers by maximising collaboration, data acquisition, marketing, and integrations. And Simpu is on its journey to being the single, integrated solution for customer acquisition and communication. In this feature, Collins Iheagwara, Simpu’s CEO, shares the centre of Simpu’s vision and success and three concise words of advice for every evolving techpreneur.
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Simpu started with a vision to revolutionise customer communication management for businesses as a customer acquisition software to help brands connect with customers. The aim was to empower businesses to effortlessly send out SMS, emails, and WhatsApp messages, providing them with a seamless omnichannel experience.
Being a customer-centric company, Simpu’s team discovered the importance of offering a wide range of use cases to cater to the diverse needs of businesses. And Simpu has evolved into a product that services every brand’s needs through omnichannel customer communication management, which empowers teams to deliver quality, fast, self-serve experiences across any channel.
Before we started, there needed to be more options to send messages through various channels using an API. It felt like we were still stuck in the Stone Age, just like Paystack and Flutterwave revolutionised the ease of accepting payments. Before them, you had to go through the hassle of setting up a bank account.
The concept of utilising an API to send transactional messages was not widely known, accepted or understood. Recognising this gap, we stepped in with an innovative approach. Thanks to pioneers like us, it has become much simpler for companies to connect an API, effortlessly send emails and SMS, and do much more.
At the core of Simpu’s customer-centric benefits is also understanding what drives the wide range of services they provide. It is integral to understand their target audience, and Simpu’s target audience is serious businesses. Businesses that need to make their customers happy, companies with a sizable number of employees, and brands ready to invest in tools that solve customer-based problems on time.
Collins shares:
We identified the opportunity to serve the B2B market as opposed to a consumer-focused approach. We further segmented our target audience to have clearly defined ideal customer profiles (ICPs). A sizable chunk of our customers are financial services.
We're currently focused on financial services, e-commerce and tech startups.
Even so, customer feedback has shaped the evolution of Simpu. Interactions with customers (businesses) drive Simpu’s features and recent integrations. Collins states that when a paying client requests an update or feature, the team immediately sets things in motion to service that need.
We have grown as fast as we have because we had paying customers from day one.
Simpu’s team invests heavily in the security and sustainability of their product by safeguarding customer data for the businesses that rely on their services. With a solid commitment to security measures, Simpu has a SOC 2 Type 2 license, which is renewed yearly. They also adhere to GDPR privacy standards and do regular penetration testing every six months to ensure the validity of their systems. Collins emphasises the company's dedication to upholding the highest security standards to ensure they provide the best for their clients.
Collins shares an example of the integration process with Google:
To provide Gmail integration within our omni-inbox, Simpu went through a detailed vetting process by Google. Our system was checked to meet the requirements set by Google. This vetting and verification process ensures that we provide a seamless and secure Gmail integration for all our customers.
Being the sole communication stack businesses would need.
According to Collins, Simpu will offer an all-in-one omnichannel inbox, integrating popular channels such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Telegram, emails, and SMS. In addition, Simpu will expand its features to include voice calls, empowering businesses to communicate and prioritise customers more efficiently. The goal is to become the sole communication stack that covers both inbound and outbound messaging and inbound and outbound calls. Simpu will offer businesses a single, integrated solution to meet customer communication requirements effectively.
Victoria: What advice would you give evolving techpreneurs?
Collins:
#1
Think about the market. The market is everything. You may have your fancy idea, and the market wants something else. And the market wants you to do something less fancy, maybe shittier, but they're willing to pay for it. As an entrepreneur, you should listen to the market.
#2
Get a support system because it's not the easiest thing to do. You may wonder why tech companies have two or three co-founders. It's actually by design. It's like a marriage, especially when there are extremes. It may get extremely low and extremely high and so you need balance.
#3
Work hard to make your customers happy. No matter how hard that is.
Simpu has revolutionised how companies connect with their customers and contributed to the broader industry shift towards streamlined and efficient customer communication management. Collins stated that in the next five years, Simpu would become the go-to solution for businesses seeking efficient customer communication management.
To register for Simpu or request a product demo, please visit their website.
