Instabase is an enterprise-focused application platform that allows businesses to automate document processing from unstructured data sources such as bank statements, pay stubs, and tax documents. They use a number of tools including generative AI to summarize and analyze data instantly. Over 50 large enterprises, mostly Fortune 100, use Instabase today.

Recently valued at $2B, the company was founded by Anant Bhardwaj in 2015. In this episode, he chats with Sandhya Hegde about Instabase’s path to product-market fit. 

Join us as we discuss:

-Anant’s founding insight for starting Instabase

-How Anant dropped out of MIT to start the company

-The first set of use cases for the platform

-How Instabase landed Standard Chartered as its first enterprise customer

-How Instabase experimented its way toward product-market fit

-Early go-to-market mistakes as he scaled the company

-Identifying early champions for landing key sales

-Enterprise customers’ responses to Instabase’s technology

-Scaling sales and hiring a sales leader after raising a Series B

-The benefits and challenges from raising their Series B at a high valuation

-Advice for early-stage founders working in AI

Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at sandhya@unusual.vc and 

-Twitter - https://twitter.com/sandhya

-LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/

Anant Bharadwaj is the CEO and founder of Instabase. Prior to starting Instabase, he was a Ph.D. student at MIT.

Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.

Further reading from the Startup Field Guide:

• Hiring your first sales leader: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/hiring-your-first-sales-leaderThe Unusual guide to to raising Seed and Series A capital: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/raising-seed-and-series-a-capital
• Starting a company: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/guide-to-pre-seed-funding
• Hiring and building a team: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/an-end-to-hiring-process