Braze co-founder Mark Ghermezian: “Whatever CRM is, that’s what we need to build”
Startup founders often say the same thing about the early days: listen to your customers. Listen to your customers, and VCs will follow. Listen to customers to ensure product-market fit. But Braze co-founder Mark Ghermezian reminds us to listen to what customers don’t say, too.
In 2008, when iPhones were just coming into the market and mobile apps were the new talk of the developer community, Ghermezian had an idea: to build a bridge between the growing population of app developers and their end users. The platform would enable developers to understand who was using their platforms, when, and why, and help them engage meaningfully with those customers. That was the seed for what Ghermezian then called Appboy, for which he bought a domain for $8.99. In 2017, the company rebranded as Braze. It’s still a customer-engagement platform with more than 1,200 employees and a global footprint.