On the Record with Itay Sinuani, CoFounder & CEO of Demoleap
Hometown: Kadima, Israel (next to Tel Aviv)
Hobbies: martial arts (capoeira and kung fu), swimming, and—as of a year ago—spending time with my daughter, Alma.
A few words to describe you: people-person, consistent (aka stubborn), goal-driven (“driver”), keen to learn
Favorite meal to cook: I don’t really cook, but my grandmother is Yemenite, and my family is still cooking and eating her favorite recipes!
What was your upbringing like and how do you think that shaped who you are today?
I have been training in martial arts since I was 8 years old, and you learn a lot from experiencing the different styles and philosophies. Some styles are more direct and focused on force and speed, while others are centered around movement.
I find those lessons to be very helpful when it comes to work challenges. When you hit a wall, you need to find the right way to either navigate around it, or if needed - through it.
What led you to start Demoleap? What were your experiences with the specific pain point you’re solving for?
I was at Salesforce, and I was leading a team of solution engineers, and Hugo—now our cofounder and CRO—was leading the sales team. At that time, our growth was dependent on our ability to enable internal sellers and partner sellers to follow our sales process and to be able to deliver value during every part of the sales cycle, from initial discovery to live demo.
We had built an extensive training program and delivered workshops all over the world. But still, we felt that something was missing—people tend to forget most of their training within 6 days! Additionally, training never simulates real-life interaction, so we knew a different approach was needed.
We looked at the tools we had in Salesforce, one of the best sales organizations in the world, and we had a tool for everything and everyone but the seller itself. BDRs, AEs, and SEs relied solely on their memory and ability to deliver. In the most crucial interaction in the sales cycle, there was no solution to aid the seller in consistently delivering high-quality discovery or live demos.
At Demoleap, we’ve identified “Three Gaps That Stop the Sales Team From Outperforming”:
The Forgetting Curve - 75% of sales training is forgotten in 6 days! It doesn’t matter how often or how structured your training is; it will most likely be forgotten.
The Cognitive Overload - To run a great discovery and live sales demo presentation, sellers need to follow the right sales methodology, storyline, click path, talk track, deck, customer stories, and objection handling… Are you exhausted yet? All of that consumes most of the seller's time.
The Technology Gap - look at your current sales stack. Most of the sales tools help companies plan or understand what went wrong. Don’t you think you deserve a tool to help you win deals in real-time before it’s too late and the deal is lost?
On that note, how do you differentiate Demoleap from other sales tools out there?
What differentiates Demoleap is the ability to reinforce best practices and provide access to knowledge and support in real-time.It's the only solution that can support software companies' sellers and guide them through sales discovery and live demos in the moment they need it the most.
When we talked to sales organizations, we learned that cost efficiency or sales efficiency is a significant pain point. I had seen this at Salesforce, as well. We used to expend so many resources on enablement courses to train people, but it wasn't effective in creating a long lasting improvement.
How have software sales changed over the past few years and how do you think they will continue to evolve over the next few years?
These days almost every company is dealing with two new obstacles: 1) more competition in the market, and 2) more educated customers.
Both of these things mean that the gap between your sales knowledge and customer expectations is huge. Not only does the sales team need to differentiate themselves against competitors with a unique value proposition, but they also need to have at least as much, if not more, knowledge than the customer. The buyer is educating himself, while the seller is left behind. We are trying to level the playing field to make sure sellers are supported and can thrive in this new reality.
I believe that in the future, we will see more real-time assistance tools that empower the capability of sellers.
How did your founding team come together?
Noam and I have known each other since high school. He is extremely talented—he taught himself to program at the age of 13! In high school, while I was doing capoeira with my team, he was already making money by programming websites. Noam already had the experience of founding a startup. His first was a company called Tracx, and they raised $60M, had $12M ARR, and locations in 3 countries. I was thrilled to start this new venture with a partner with such strong and relevant experience. I knew he would be the right person to partner with to build a scalable product and a top engineering team.
Our third cofounder, Hugo, started as an advisor and when we were at the right stage, he was able to join us. He’s been invested since day 1, but became a full-time employee after our seed round.
Hiring is often a big pain point for early stage companies? What would you say has been your biggest or most unexpected challenge in this area?
Our first hires were from our network. Every founder starts with a list of people he wants to bring on board—there are still some people on my list that I hope to be able to afford some day! But the biggest challenge for me has been having to fire someone from that list. I had to let go of someone who I had convinced to leave their prior job. I brought him in, but in the end it didn’t work out. It’s very hard to do, especially fast enough. It’s a common problem in early stage startups—you’re trying to hold on and make it work, but as a CEO, you need to understand that if there isn't a fit, it would only cause frustration for both the company and the employee.
On a more optimistic note, what are you looking forward to in Demoleap’s future?
I’m excited about the possibilities of what we can achieve. The origin of Demoleap was to solve something very specific—the demo problem—but I believe that Demoleap is positioned to become the leading real-time sales execution solution for every software company.
The growth of the company has been amazing to witness. When we started it was just the two of us, but now the company has a life of its own. I cannot wait to see how large and impactful we can become.
On a more personal note, what motivates you, individually?
I really like to help people and solve problems, that is what solution engineers are all about - solving problems that help others.
Who has been your biggest inspiration/mentor/motivator as an entrepreneur?
I think we can learn a lot and be inspired by many people around us every day, whether that’s a colleague, a friend, an investor, even a prospect or a customer. For example, Hugo started as a colleague, developed into a mentor and advisor, and is now a co-founder and CRO.
Itay Sinuani is the Co-Founder & CEO of Demoleap. He has a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and Management; Information Systems Engineering, and an MBA from the Tel Aviv University Coller School of Management. Itay previously worked at ServiceWise and Salesforce before founding Demoleap in 2019. He currently lives in the Tel Aviv area with his family.
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