Host: Joe Barhoum
Guest: Ganesh Shankar
00:00:06 Joe Barhoum
Alright Ganesh, thank you so much for being on the podcast. I really appreciate this. It's too bad we can't be in person even though we're not too far apart. But given the conditions of the day, I I appreciate your flexibility.
00:00:18 Ganesh Shankar
Thanks Joe, I'm happy to be here and you know, I know this has been. We've been trying to do this for a long time and I'm really glad we are finally here.
00:00:27 Ganesh Shankar
Yes, I I wish we had an opportunity to meet. Do this in person, but you know, in this this world hiking virtual this the reality. So let's do that.
00:00:36 Joe Barhoum
Yeah we are. We are fortunate to have this flexibility to do this, so thank you for that and you know we met because I I knew some would work for your organization and so we started to socialize a bit and.
00:00:49 Joe Barhoum
I didn't even know what you did at RFP IO and so I want to spend some time talking about that because it's a career long sales professional. Your tool, if I'd had it.
00:01:00 Joe Barhoum
In those 15 years that I.
00:01:01 Joe Barhoum
Was selling I. I would probably look five years younger, right? So, but before we get to that I want to get to know you a little bit.
00:01:09 Joe Barhoum
Make sure the audience gets knows, get to know you too. So tell us about yourself and how you got to where you are.
00:01:14 Ganesh Shankar
Yeah, so my name is Ganesh Shankar. I'm one of the Co founders of RFP. Oh basically Archeo is like you said, you know we are purpose built software to solve the RFP response problem and you know proposal management problems. So we we help our customers too.
00:01:35 Ganesh Shankar
Create business proposals and you know submit the RFP's on time. That's what we do but about myself you know as a way of background so I started my career as a as a sales Rep back in India so that's where I started. I was working on the financial services side, selling working for a stockbroker selling.
00:01:57 Ganesh Shankar
Equity accounts and insurance and bank account. That's what I started my career as and along the career I've seen a couple of market crashes, no 2008, and then one after that. That's when I realized it's Washington. My Cup of tea, you know?
00:02:14 Ganesh Shankar
I've seen people, literally, you know, spend their fortunes to hold their position. That's when I realize it's not my Cup of tea, and I switch my career from selling financial services product into a product management role for technology company. So I was there for a few years and I moved back to the US in 2011 as a director of.
00:02:35 Ganesh Shankar
Product manager for another software company. So during that process only you know I've responded to quite a few. RFP S as a product manager, helping my sales team to close these and win more. These deals that prompted us to look for a solution. In fact, I jokingly say this to our team internally we don't have.
00:02:55 Ganesh Shankar
Uh, cool Garage story like Apple or Google or we don't have a dorm room story like Snap Chat or our our Facebook. It is if you're a pain point that myself and my cofounders chunker sender and another person from India Manish, we all know encountered on our day to day life.
00:03:15 Ganesh Shankar
Was our biggest pain point code of our primary job, so that's when we looked at the applications to automate this. It couldn't find any application so we decided to take the reins on our own hands. Here we are about four and a half years into business and I will get to that into more details, but that's the brief history about myself personally.
00:03:36 Ganesh Shankar
I'm a father of two. I have a 9 year old daughter and I have a 7 year old daughter and we live by portion.
00:03:44 Joe Barhoum
I love it. That's awesome. I have three kids by the way, so my oldest is 6 1/2 now in first grade and then down to a year and a half. So kind of in the same world as you. It's hard to be a professional and a father and a husband and all that at the same time. But it's also a blessing.
00:04:00 Ganesh Shankar
It is a blessing. Yeah, absolutely yeah.
00:04:02 Joe Barhoum
So with RFP IO now even the name.
00:04:05 Joe Barhoum
RFP so request for proposal input output right RPI. Oh so the the idea is right there in the name, right? We're going to you input the requirements of the RFP. We're going to output the final product, and then along the way there's there's collaboration. There's integrations. Let's talk about the RFP problem.
00:04:26 Joe Barhoum
That exists right now in the buying and selling world. Perhaps we'll start with the sellers perspective.
00:04:31 Joe Barhoum
As you see it.
00:04:32 Ganesh Shankar
Absolutely, you know you're you're you.
00:04:35 Ganesh Shankar
You hit it on the head. What is the problem that we're doing in fact?
00:04:40 Ganesh Shankar
When we name the company, when we started RFP. Oh, we were contemplating on different names. You know we chose this name. You know, I know this and aggravation, but we chose it because as a startup at that time when we were starting up, we didn't have a lot of marketing version. Lot of times what we are seeing these days is sort of sort of having a fancy name.
00:05:01 Ganesh Shankar
Have to spend time on explaining what you know, the problem that they're following. Nothing wrong in it, but they have to head. Go an extra mile to spend energy. No. No, I don't think I ever explained it to you. What we, what the name. So you immediately you know when you read it. If you're in that same profession, you will know OK RFP's or something to do with RFP.