Toutapp

ToutApp emerged as a significant player in the sales engagement software market, designed to streamline and enhance the productivity of sales professionals. Founded in 2011 by Tawheed Kader, the company aimed to be a comprehensive operating system for salespeople, consolidating various tools into a single, unified platform. Kader's background, which includes experience at the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates and the social network Plaxo, provided him with insights into turning data points into meaningful signals, a principle he applied to ToutApp. His journey as an entrepreneur began even earlier with HipCal, a networked calendar company he co-founded in college and later sold to Plaxo.

The company's core business was providing a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform to enterprise sales teams. It operated on a subscription model, serving over 400 enterprise clients, including notable companies like Citrix, Dropbox, Siemens, and Tableau. The platform was engineered to address the entire sales cycle by integrating with existing CRM systems like Salesforce, as well as email clients such as Gmail and Outlook. This integration allowed for the automation of repetitive tasks, freeing up sales representatives to focus on building relationships and closing deals. The business generated between $5 million and $10 million in annual revenue prior to its acquisition.

ToutApp's product provided a suite of features geared towards sales acceleration. Key functionalities included email tracking, which notified reps when an email was opened or a link was clicked, and shareable email templates to ensure consistent and effective messaging across the team. The platform also offered detailed analytics on campaign and individual performance, giving sales leaders visibility into what strategies were working. A significant feature was 'Sales Campaigns,' which allowed reps to create and automate multi-touch outreach sequences involving email, phone calls, and social media interactions. By unifying these tools, ToutApp helped organizations standardize their sales playbook, reduce ramp-up time for new hires, and gain clear insights into their sales processes. In April 2017, ToutApp was acquired by Marketo, a marketing automation software provider, in a strategic move to bridge the gap between sales and marketing technology. The acquisition was valued at a reported $30 million.

Keywords: sales engagement, sales acceleration, email tracking, sales analytics, CRM integration, sales automation, lead engagement, sales productivity, Marketo, Tawheed Kader, sales campaigns, sales playbook, content management for sales, sales software platform, account-based marketing, sales cycle management, deal closing, pipeline management, sales communication, enterprise sales software