Endgame Raises $17M to Revolutionize Product-Led Sales

Endgame Secures $17 Million in Seed and Series A Funding

Endgame, a company focused on empowering software businesses to translate customer insights into effective go-to-market strategies, has announced the completion of $17 million in funding across both seed and Series A rounds.

Investment Details

A $12.25 million Series A round was spearheaded by Menlo Ventures, following a $5 million seed round led by Upfront Ventures. Additional investors included Todd and Rahul’s Fund, Liquid 2 Ventures, and Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight.

Company Overview

Founded in 2020 and based in Los Angeles, Endgame delivers a user-friendly platform for monitoring activity within software trials. This allows sales teams to prioritize accounts based on observed user behavior and respond more rapidly, without requiring specialized data science or engineering expertise.

The Shift Towards Product-Led Growth

According to CEO Alex Bilmes, the principles of product-led sales and product-led growth are now dominant in the software industry. Modern customers frequently initiate trials, and positive experiences often lead to referrals.

However, Bilmes notes that a degree of direct sales engagement is often necessary to finalize transactions. Endgame addresses this need by revealing which users are actively engaging with the product and which features are being utilized – information that is often unavailable to sales and revenue teams.

Rethinking Customer Relationship Management

Traditional customer relationship management (CRM) systems typically rely on sales representatives to manually input notes. While manageable for smaller account volumes, this approach becomes impractical with millions of users. Endgame analyzes data to pinpoint accounts with the highest conversion potential, identifies key users for engagement, and defines characteristics of successful customers, providing actionable insights.

Competing with Internal Development

Bilmes clarifies that Endgame’s primary competition isn’t other companies, but rather internal development teams attempting to build similar systems using disparate tools.

“Much of this functionality is currently being developed internally,” he explained. “I’ve personally constructed Endgame-like systems at previous companies, integrating databases and various tools to create customized views for revenue teams. We are competing with those data scientists and internal teams assembling fragmented solutions.”

Early Adoption and Market Potential

Currently in a pre-revenue stage, Endgame is already serving a cohort of beta customers, including Figma, Loom, Airtable, Clubhouse, Mode, Retool, and Algolia, all seeking a dedicated platform to capitalize on product-led growth opportunities.

The CRM market is substantial and experiencing rapid growth, projected to reach $114 billion by 2027 with an annual growth rate of 35%. Bilmes intends to allocate the new funding towards aggressive hiring, with the team already tripling in size to nine members in recent months and expected to double again within the next year. Resources will also be dedicated to research and development and refining the product-led sales landscape.

Focus on Customer Success

Future growth will be centered on customer acquisition and ensuring the platform is readily accessible to businesses adopting product-led strategies.

“Our primary focus remains on the product,” Bilmes stated. “The demand we’re experiencing exceeds our current capacity, highlighting the widespread relevance of this challenge.”

Board Appointments

As part of the investment, Kara Nortman, Partner at Upfront Ventures, and Naomi Ionita, Partner at Menlo Ventures, will join Endgame’s board of directors. Sandhya Hegde, partner at Unusual Ventures, will serve as a board observer, resulting in an all-female investor board.

Strategic Partnerships

Bilmes emphasized the importance of partnering with Nortman, given her expertise in applying consumer-focused strategies to enterprise solutions, during the seed funding round. For the Series A, Ionita was selected due to her similar background to Bilmes and her experience in training sales teams on effective engagement techniques.

Ionita shared with TechCrunch that she learned about Endgame through Nortman and recognized the significant pain point the company addresses, particularly for businesses offering self-service options.

“This level of insight is currently lacking, and I’ve witnessed this firsthand – either through building internal solutions or observing companies operating without clear data,” she added. “Alex deeply understands this challenge, and I envision Endgame becoming the definitive system of record and intelligence for bridging the gap between self-service and product-facing sales teams, identifying which accounts to prioritize and why.”