Convin.ai: How Ashish Santhalia is Illuminating the 'Dark Funnel' of Sales Conversations
In any corporate setup, the most critical data often exists in the one place it isn't recorded: the conversation. When a salesperson talks to a customer, they are navigating objections, identifying needs, and building rapport. Yet, studies show that less than 25% of the information from these calls is ever retained or documented. Ashish Santhalia, Co-founder of Convin.ai, is on a mission to capture this "dark data." By building an AI-powered conversation intelligence platform, Ashish is ensuring that the wisdom of top-performing reps is democratized across entire organizations, with a "North Star" goal of serving one million sales professionals worldwide.
Ashish Santhalia’s journey is one of "Product Manager for Life." A graduate of IIT Delhi, Ashish spent years at LimeTray and Byju's, where he realized that product and sales teams were often flying blind without direct insight into customer feedback. In 2020, alongside fellow IIT Delhi alumni Durgesh Choudhary, Bharat Patidar, and Atul Shree, he launched Convin.ai. Their vision was to build a global SaaS powerhouse from India, specializing in Natural Language Processing (NLP) to turn speech into actionable revenue intelligence.
The Documentation Gap
When Ashish was a PM at LimeTray, he realized that crucial customer insights were being lost daily. Sales conversations were never documented, and the reasons why a customer *didn't* buy a product remained a mystery to the product team. Convin.ai was built to bridge this gap, ensuring that every "No" becomes a lesson for the next "Yes."
The Problem: The Sales Conversation Black Hole
Traditional sales coaching relies on "ride-alongs"—where a manager joins a call to observe a rep. This is impossible to scale. For a scaling startup, managers often only see the "outcome" (the deal won or lost) but never the "process" (what was actually said). This leads to a fragmented understanding of what makes a salesperson successful.
"Conversations are the core of business," Ashish explains. "But we treat them like they are ephemeral. We record emails and chats, but the most important channel—the phone or video call—remained unanalyzed. We wanted to build a system that transcribes and maps these data points to figure out what exactly is happening and what is not."
The Solution: NLP-Powered Revenue Intelligence
Convin.ai is a comprehensive platform that records, transcribes, and analyzes conversations across multiple channels—emails, chats, phone calls, and video conferencing. Using sophisticated **NLP and machine learning**, the platform identifies key moments, such as competitor mentions, pricing objections, or buying signals.
The Convin Intelligence Flow
- Automated Recording: Convin joins calls or syncs with dialers to record 100% of interactions.
- Speech-to-Text: Proprietary models (including an Indic-language focused LLM) transcribe the conversation in real-time.
- intent Analysis: The AI flags where reps are doing well and where they are lagging behind based on predefined parameters.
- Actionable Feedback: Managers get a "highlight reel" of every call, allowing them to coach reps on specific moments rather than vague outcomes.
The Hustle: 500 LinkedIn Requests to US VPs
Building a B2B SaaS product for the global market from India is an uphill task. Ashish’s primary growth hack wasn't a marketing gimmick—it was **asking for help**. Before writing a single line of code, he messaged over 500 VPs of sales in the US on LinkedIn to understand their pain points.
"I was surprised how people were willing to hear me out," Ashish recalls. "I didn't know these people, but I just asked if they could help me validate my idea. If you go with a large enough number, at least 5% will help, and that 5% provides all the insight you need to build a world-class product."
Convin.ai Scale & Vision
- 1 Million Sales Reps: The ambitious North Star goal for the platform.
- Series A Funding: Secured $6.5M in 2024 to scale AI capabilities and global distribution.
- Indic Language Support: Supporting over 35 languages, including 23 Indic languages, for the diverse Indian contact center market.
- High Efficiency: Built the initial version with just ₹20 lakh while global competitors had hundreds of millions.
Lessons in Leadership: Reversible vs. Irreversible Decisions
For Ashish, entrepreneurship is a game of constant decision-making. He follows a simple framework: Is this decision reversible? If it is, he optimizes for speed. If it is irreversible (non-reversible), he spends significantly more time figuring out the "ideal" path.
"Building a business is very hard, even a small one," he admits. "Once you understand this, the fascination with 'just building' fades and you focus on building a sustainable entity. It's a long journey, and you have to be settled in your mind that you will eventually find your way."
Founder's Lesson: Ask for Help
Don't shy away from reaching out to experts who don't know you exist. Many senior leaders are happy to hear out a founder if the request is honest and specific. Asking for help is the simplest growth hack in B2B SaaS.
The Meaning of Entrepreneurship
Ashish defines an entrepreneur as someone with a goal that isn't just about financial returns, but about an abstract desire to solve a real problem. He believes that "possibility is a state of mind," and once you have a clear goal, the logical decisions to achieve it become obvious.
Convin.ai is proving that Indian startups can lead the global AI revolution. By turning every sales conversation into a source of intelligence, Ashish Santhalia and his team are ensuring that for the next generation of sales reps, the path to "Closing the Deal" is clearer than ever.
About the Guest
Ashish Santhalia is the Co-founder and CEO of Convin.ai. An IIT Delhi graduate with a lifelong career in product management, Ashish has worked at LimeTray, Byju's, and founded Noticebee. Under his leadership, Convin.ai has raised millions in funding and emerged as a key player in the conversation intelligence space. He is a passionate advocate for AI-driven productivity and is focused on scaling Indian SaaS solutions to the global stage.
Convin.ai is an AI-powered conversation intelligence platform that helps sales and customer support teams improve performance. By recording, transcribing, and analyzing every interaction, Convin provides businesses with the insights they need to optimize sales scripts, handle objections, and drive revenue growth.