Aleem Mawani is the Cofounder of Streak, a CRM for Gmail that helps small teams manage any workflow from their inbox, including sales, project management, fundraising, customer support, hiring and business development. Prior to Streak, Aleem served as a Program Manager at Microsoft and Product Manager at Google, and he earned his MBA at Harvard Business School.
Boost VC S5EP4 Streak CRM
If You Can’t Be a Unicorn, Be a Workhorse—with Aleem Mawani
Not every startup can be the proverbial venture unicorn. But just because a company isn’t valued at $1B or more doesn’t mean it’s dead. So, how do you build a profitable, growing tech workhorse? And how might venture evolve a new model that supports these businesses?
Aleem Mawani is the Cofounder of Streak, a CRM for Gmail that helps small teams manage any workflow from their inbox, including sales, project management, fundraising, customer support, hiring and business development. Prior to Streak, Aleem served as a Program Manager at Microsoft and Product Manager at Google, and he earned his MBA at Harvard Business School.
Today, Aleem joins us to explain what inspired his team to build Streak, sharing their customer-centric process for adding new features and making pricing decisions. He discusses the concerns founders have around building on a centralized service like Gmail and how his team mitigated their risk simply by talking to the team at Google. Listen in for Aleem’s insight on building a profitable tech workhorse (as opposed to a unicorn) and learn how venture might innovate to accommodate growing companies like Streak.
Topics Covered
How Aleem came to build the Streak CRM for Gmail
The Streak team’s current process for adding features
How Aleem’s team makes decisions around pricing
How Aleem thinks about when to start charging customers
How Aleem benefitted from work experience at Google
The top concerns for building on a centralized service
The benefits of being a profitable workhorse like Streak
Aleem’s insight on the need for innovation in venture
The challenge around brainstorming during a pandemic
Aleem’s personal definition of success and fulfillment
Connect with Aleem
Streak https://www.streak.com/
Streak on Twitter https://twitter.com/streak
Streak on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/streakgmail/
Streak on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/streak-com/
Aleem on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleemmawani/
Aleem on Twitter https://twitter.com/aloo
Resources
Salesforce https://www.salesforce.com/
Zynga https://www.zynga.com/
DocSend https://www.docsend.com/
Tempo https://www.yourtempo.co/
Books by Warren Buffett https://www.amazon.com/Warren-Buffett/e/B001IGFJO2
Connect with Boost VC
Boost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/
Boost VC on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/boostvc/
Boost VC on Twitter https://twitter.com/BoostVC
Boost VC on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/boost_vc/