From Frustration to Fortune
Prior to 2013 when Calendly - a meeting scheduling software used by individuals and teams for business communication, was founded, Tope worked as a salesperson at Dell EMC.
Awotona got fed up with the stress and difficulty of scheduling sales calls for Dell EMC who sells data storage, information security, cloud computing etc.
With his savings and a small-business loan, he hired Railsware (Ukraine based company) to develop Calendly.
It started as a freemium software. In 2013, seed investors invested $550k. By 2014, with more advanced features, the premium version was added.
The gradual and consistent growth got bigger and Calendly reported a huge spike in website traffic and sign-ups, when many others defended the criticism of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur about the etiquette behind sending Calendly link.
As at today, Tope Awotona's Calendly is rated as a market leader by Wired.
It is important to note that, Calendly operates an all-remote workforce. No physical offices, no headquarters.
And as at January 2021, Calendly was valued at $3B.
Joseph Adebambo
Writer & Educator
Linkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=126022.0
