Tal Daskal is the CEO and Co-Founder at EasySend, a SaaS company based in Tel Aviv, New York, and Germany.
Daskal is an expert on digital transformation in banking and insurance and is a passionate advocate for the paradigm shift towards no-code application development in the financial sector.
EasySend is a no-code platform for building and optimizing digital customer journeys. EasySend is leading the charge for a digital future by helping companies transform paperwork, such as PDFs, into digital journeys, allowing them to create online forms in minutes with a click of a button – without a single line of code.
In an exclusive interview with AsiaTechDaily, Tal says:
- The hard thing about hard things
- The Wolf of Wall Street
- The Commander
These three excellent pieces discuss the pillars of entrepreneurship and how to strive to reach your goals in life.
Verify there is an evident market fit before making huge business decisions – in other words, until the “machine works.”
Give the best service possible to your customers and develop a product that impacts the customer and meets their needs.
Read on to know more about Tal Daskal and his journey.
Please tell me about your personal background and What motivated you to get started with your company?
Tal Daskal: My name is Tal Daskal, and I am the CEO and Co-Founder of EasySend, a SaaS company based in Tel Aviv, New York, and EMEA. After working at one of the largest insurance companies in Israel, my co-founders, Omer Shirazi and Eran Shirazi, and I saw first hand the extent of the problem that paperwork and manual processes create in insurance – and with that, EasySend began.
What is your current main product, and can you share any previous product pivot story to the current product?
Tal Daskal: EasySend is a no-code platform for building and optimizing digital customer journeys. EasySend is leading the charge for a digital future by helping companies transform paperwork, such as PDFs, into digital journeys, allowing them to create online forms in minutes with a click of a button – without a single line of code. The EasySend platform takes lengthy, complicated forms and automatically transforms them into amazing digital journeys that can be completed on any device. Using advanced real-time analytics, companies that go digital with EasySend gain full visibility into their customers’ workflow activities and behaviors. Companies can easily identify where their customers dropped out of workflows so that they can optimize their form completion rates, drive revenue growth, and enhance customer experience and satisfaction rates.
How much money have you raised in total so far? When was the recent funding round?
Tal Daskal: We have received a funding of $16M. The Series A funding round was in September 2020.
What were the internal decision processes in determining when to begin fundraising, and what were the logistics for this? And how many investors have you met so far, and how did you meet these investors, and which channels worked best for you?
Tal Daskal: The COVID-19 pandemic made it as clear as ever that digital transformation is no longer optional. EasySend helps create an organizational digital culture at scale, quickly and cost-effectively.
What are the biggest challenges and obstacles that you have faced in the process of fundraising? If you had to start over, what would you do differently?
Tal Daskal: We raised our Series A funding amidst the global Coronavirus pandemic within just two months after starting the fundraising process, which shows the current need and desire for secure, efficient, and easy to use digital processes. Raising a funding round is a challenge at the best of times, and it definitely was not an easy task. We had talks with investors day and night. A few decided to move forward with us to the next stage quickly in a complex period of Corona.
We received a few term sheets and went into our diligence on the investors. We have spoken with their portfolio companies, peer board members, past colleagues, and many more. Fortunately, only after thorough research, we eventually picked Hanaco to lead the round with another strategic partner to follow: Intel Capital. We continued to work with the two VCs that invested in our Seed round (Vertex and Menora).
What are your milestones for the next round? And what are your goals for the future?
Tal Daskal: We plan to use the investment to expand our operations in the United States and broaden our verticals, such as government, telecom, medicine, and more. We also plan to strengthen the three layers of our product:
- Build – a no-code platform for building digital journeys
- Optimize – data-rich dashboards, insights, and analytics to bring visibility into the chaotic world of digital transformation
- Integrate – launching a marketplace and strengthening our integrations capability
How have you attracted users, and with what strategy have you grown your company from the start to now?
Tal Daskal: EasySend is actively expanding in the United States, EMEA, and APAC. We have over 40 enterprise customers worldwide, such as Petplan and Nurnberger Versicherung, and a partnership with SAP, Amdocs, KPMG, Capgemini, Deloitte, and more. We currently have offices in Israel, New York, and Germany, where we have over 50 employees, and we expect to reach over 100 employees by 2021.
How do you plan to expand globally?
Tal Daskal: Currently, we are actively expanding in the United States, EMEA, and APAC. We plan to broaden our verticals, including government, telecom, medicine, and more.
What are the most common mistakes companies make with global expansion?
Tal Daskal: One of the most common mistakes companies make with global expansion begins by not letting local teams lead the way. Hiring employees in various countries but failing to consider their input is a commonly made mistake that prohibits effective global expansion. These individuals know their country well and know your business well, making them suitable to be involved in business decisions. With this being said, localization, adapting sales and marketing channels to the appropriate geography is essential for strategic overseas growth.
How do you handle this COVID-19 outbreak situation for your company’s survival in the future?
Tal Daskal: The COVID-19 pandemic made it clear to our prospective customers and to us that digital transformation is no longer optional. No matter the industry, enterprises are moving towards a more digital future. EasySend helps organizations achieve just that, creating a digital culture at scale in record time and at a fraction of the cost. We raised the funding amidst the Coronavirus pandemic within just two months after starting the fundraising process, which shows the current demand for secure, efficient, and easy to use digital processes.
What are the most common mistakes founders make when they start a company?
Tal Daskal: Hiring the wrong people and developing a product without receiving constant customer feedback during the entire process.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? And What advice do you have for someone who is interested in doing similar things like yours or in a similar direction?
Tal Daskal: Verify there is an evident market fit before making huge business decisions – in other words, until the “machine works.”
Give the best service possible to your customers and develop a product that impacts the customer and meets their needs.
What are the top-three books or movies (TV series) that changed your life and why?
Tal Daskal:
- The hard thing about hard things
- The Wolf of Wall Street
- The Commander
These three excellent pieces discuss the pillars of entrepreneurship and how to strive to reach your goals in life.
How do you keep yourself motivated every day?
Tal Daskal: I consider the destinations I would like to reach and evaluate how I will reach them most efficiently.
What are the top- three life lessons that you want your (future) sons and daughters to know?
Tal Daskal:
- Work hard, but remember to enjoy yourself
- Work hard, play hard
- Work hard, and enjoy the journey
What would you like to be remembered for?
Tal Daskal: I would like to be remembered for EasySend’s mission statement: building a digital culture in today’s digital era.
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