I think☝️ that would be the most succinct answer.

I have been running a SaaS (software) company and sending multiple proposals every month. Though our software has been available to use on a AS-IS basis and always have a publicly accessible pricing (just like Fresh Proposals) still many customers would ask for a formal proposal (obviously, they have a buying-approval process to follow).

There were three major problems

• Writing proposals sucks lot of time; proposals would still look unimpressive
• Clients would ask for changes (quantity, service). Often changes would flow as Email > Excel / Calculator > MS Word > PDF > Email (repeat)
• Quite a few times, there would be no response from clients. I realized that the manual, scheduled follow up would not bring cheers.  It was frustrating

And I researched for right solution to these problems. I couldn’t find right one and decided to build my own tool.

Because as small medium enterprise (SME), we hugely miss-out on the sophisticated approach. But large enterprises and smart owners get access to finest design, content and “insider connect” to convert & close sales deals.  Everything else being equal (product, service, support), large enterprises/ smart owners would be able to ‘move our cheese’. This can be changed. And I am convinced Fresh Proposals would help in closing more deals.

Why not build something that will give business like ours to impress prospects, get solid sales signals and in turn use those sales signals to close the deals faster?

• We started building pre-designed, ready to use proposal templates that are visually engaging
• We researched extensively for proposal structure & content that’ll give you a huge head-start
• We built proposal analytics feat to help you act swiftly & keep you on top of your sales funnel

 Fresh Proposals is already used by businesses in more than 15 countries. We are working with our customers to make it one of the best proposal management software.

Sandeep and I have been buddies since college days. We have few common interests but in particular, we like to trek & jungle walks. As a group we have camped on hilltops of western ranges of Deccan Plateau (India). Despite of the hardships of getting up there, the  clear skies above our head, clean air and the silence would make it worth. Be it summer, winter or rainy season, we kept walking, trekking for years. 

Our path separated, we worked in different roles/capacities, companies and countries. We kept in touch, kept discussing startups, tech, markets, products vs services and stuff like that. 

While I was deliberating about the challenges about managing sales proposal at my other venture, and ideating sales proposal tool and progress made so far, I asked Sandeep what he thought about proposal builder, managing its lifecycle. He got quite a few interesting ideas around it. So I asked him if he would like to take on this challenge.

The idea of building a product, starting a venture is exciting but it needs commitments, sacrifices and patience. Both of us were ready to take the plunge and solve our own – real challenge. And that’s how we started Fresh Proposals.