Salesfolks

Salesfolks helps online shoppers find vetted, experienced salespeople.

Its digital marketplace curates live salespeople who are available on-demand to help consumers make smarter purchasing decisions.

By 2020, the global business-to-consumer e-commerce market is expected to surpass $4 trillion. At the same time, the business-to-business e-commerce market is expected to surpass $6 trillion.

For most, buying simple products online like shampoo or books is an easy process. Just visit a website like Amazon.com or Target.com and place an order.

But buying things like cars, luxury travel, and business equipment can be complicated. It often helps to have access to a salesperson.

Salespeople, meanwhile, find it difficult to reach customers at the peak moment of buying interest. They also have trouble maintaining a one-on-one relationship with the customer through the entire buying process.

Salesfolks aims to solve these issues for consumers and salespeople with its digital marketplace.

Consumers simply visit Salesfolks’ marketplace. There, they can vet salespeople by their experience and area of expertise (such as travel, automotive, or consumer goods).

Salesfolks has more than 650 product and service categories, a rating system, and individual profiles to help customers get to know a salesperson before reaching out to them. Once they’ve connected, the salesperson can keep in touch with the customer using real-time text, audio, or video communication.

In addition to this marketplace, clients using Salesfolks’ platform can promote their own salespeople on their website through pop-up notifications. A consumer visiting a travel website, for example, would see a pop-up showing a travel agent from that company who is available to assist the customer.

Whether through Salesfolks’ marketplace, or on client websites, salespeople can offer consumers instant, expert buying advice. In addition, Salesfolks’ platform enables consumers to get back in touch with the same salesperson throughout the entire buying process.

Salesfolks’ marketplace is free for consumers and salespeople. Salespeople can pay to advertise their sales profile and to move into premium positions on the platform. In addition, salespeople can upgrade to Salesfolks’ “pro” version for $20 per month. This features audio and video chat capabilities in addition to the standard text offering.

Since launching, Salesfolks has attracted more than 1,000 clients. These include the Cleveland Browns, PGA Tour, Norton Healthcare, Federal Savings Bank, and Virtuoso.

In addition, the company filed a patent on its proprietary technology that helps match customers with knowledgable salespeople.

Investors in Salesfolks include the former Chief Technology Officer of Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), a software company focused on customer relationships management with a $124 billion market cap; the Founder of ATG Stores, an e-commerce company acquired by Lowe’s; and Ringleader Ventures, a VC firm investing in early-stage startups.

Team Background

Chirag Pancholi - Co-Founder & COO

Chirag joined Lief in starting Jenny Life, a company developing software to aid in the purchase of life insurance. He also worked with Lief as Chief Operating Officer of Engage Co.

For four years, he served as an advisor at Harvard University’s Innovation Lab. In addition, he spent four years as a mentor at Global Insurance Accelerator, a program helping startups that are targeting the global insurance market.

Chirag founded Wisemuv, a business-to-business sales platform featuring financial services.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from University of Maryland, a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard, and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Lief Larson - Co-Founder & CEO

Prior to starting Salesfolks, Lief co-founded Engage Co, a software-as-a-service company connecting sales representatives to prospective buyers.

He co-founded Jenny Life, a startup dedicated to making purchasing life insurance easy and fast.

Lief spent seven years as the Chief Technical Officer for Workface, a company developing a customer engagement platform for businesses.

He earned a degree in Business from the University of Wisconsin and a degree in Business and Marketing from the University of Minnesota.

Wade Wendorff - Co-Founder & Senior Engineer

Before starting Salesfolks, Wade worked as a senior development engineer for Workface.

He was a senior developer for TheMLSonline, a platform connecting real estate professionals to prospective buyers.

He earned a degree in Computer Science from Lakeland College.

Danny Patterson - Co-Founder & CTO

Danny has previous experience working with Salesfolks’ team by serving as Chief Technology Officer for Engage Co., and Chief Architect for Workface.

In addition, he was Chief Technology Officer for Benovate, a health and wellness mobile platform.

He spent 13 years as a software architect for his own business, Patterson Consulting. He spent six years as a senior software architect for Schematic, a digital design company.

Danny earned a degree from the University of Sioux Falls.

Co-Investors

Ringleader Ventures

VC firm investing in early-stage companies. Portfolio includes Engage (software for developing new sales channels) and Appcast (platform for advertising and job recruiting).