DevRev: Improving the Developer-Customer Relationship
A platform for developers to build products, support users, and grow their businesses
Customer relationship management (CRM) offers companies an in-depth look at their customers’ experience, ultimately guiding them to strategies that can improve business performance. While companies can select from a variety of CRM software options, current solutions are complex, with essential information getting lost across systems.
Alumni Ventures portfolio company DevRev is taking advantage of the increasing need for powerful, product-led growth software. The company’s end-to-end development platform connects creators directly with customers to help them build products, support users, and grow their businesses. DevRev is a company “for developers, by developers” — harnessing the knowledge of engineers to create a system that makes enterprise software more product and customer-centric.
Improved CRM Software
The demand for proper CRM software is at an all-time high, with the market projected to reach $145.8 billion by 2029. However, current solutions are insufficient, with companies using two systems of record (internal-facing for developers and external-facing for customers), resulting in the external source feedback needing to be coded into the developer’s source. This process takes time, as these records are siloed within the organization and can lead to customer churn before a developer can turn attention to fixing specific requests.
Unlike competitors, DevRev’s approach bridges the gap between developers and customers through an API-first, dev-centric CRM that leverages data, design, and machine intelligence. Code gets built into cloud-operated software and delivered to customers, bringing an improved understanding of customer needs to the fore as developers create new features, fix bugs, or address test regressions. In addition, because DevRev provides clear visibility of the entire value chain, development teams experience several advantages, including better prioritization, attribution, and overall impact.
Strong Product Thesis and Seasoned Team
Founded by a seasoned team of entrepreneurs, DevRev’s product thesis is driven by three emerging macro trends:
- SaaS: The new norm versus traditional on-prem software deployments.
- Consumption-based economy: Enterprise software is delivered as a pay-as-you-go model where customers pay for usage based on volume, number of users, computing units, and more.
- Product-led growth: Trials and freemium experiences make the adoption of new products frictionless and put end-users at the center of the purchase decision.
As a company created by developers, DevRev establishes a system where customer interactions across conversations, tickets, and clicks, come together with the developer interactions of collaboration, triage, and features. The company’s CEO, Dheeraj Pandey, was the prior CEO and Co-Founder of Nutanix (IPO in 2016 and current $5.6 billion market cap). His Co-Founder, Manoj Agarwal, was the SVP of Engineering at Nutanix.
How We Are Involved
DevRev has already seen significant traction with VCs, coming out of stealth with a $50 million seed round. Two of AV’s funds, Spike Ventures (for the Stanford community) and Westwood Ventures (for the UCLA community), deployed capital alongside established VCs Mayfield Fund and Khosla Ventures.
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Contact [email protected] for additional information. To see additional risk factors and investment considerations, visit av-funds.com/disclosures.