Every relation with customers or business partners is more precious than gold for startups. InStream is a CRM platform from Poznań that manages all relations, including sales processes, in small companies. It does a lot of work for the user, automatically importing all contacts, suggesting the best approach in relations with a customer, and speeding up the communication process.
The idea for InStream was born when Filip Duszczak, the current CEO, worked in a corporation. He was looking for a tool that would let him manage all business relations and import all contacts automatically. During his research, he discovered a gap in the market waiting to be filled. Duszczak has 7 years of experience in sales and business development. Wojciech Cebula, the second co-founder, has 5 years of experience in marketing, specializing in SEO. He used to work for one of the largest online marketing agencies in Poland, the Sunrise System.
For small CRM tool InStream has tons of features. The most important one is the relations management feature. You can monitor all incoming and outgoing e-mails and calls, important events such as meetings or videoconferences, and set up comments, reminders and notifications. InStream imports all contacts directly from your e-mail account and supplements them with data from social media such as Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. You can group your contacts and relations in lists and store all information you need – for example, the date of last contact or the employee who most frequently gets in touch with this specific company. InStream allows for cooperation with your coworkers, as you all share one communication platform. It can also produce reports that will measure the efficiency of your e-mail campaign or marketing results.
InStream targets small and medium companies with up to 250 employees. Their CRM is perfect for such businesses, as it is intuitive and extremely user-friendly. A unique element of InStream is its suggestions feature. It is able to provide suggestions on improving your relations or managing your sales, what is great for small businesses that just begin to learn the principles of relations management.
InStream is freemium software. The free version is limited to 2 users, but still offers an unlimited number of contacts and relations. The basic subscription costs $10 monthly per user; InStream offers an account free of charge for the first year if your startup will use their logo on its website and facebook page.
This startup is doing pretty well. They’ve gotten 700 new users a month and are backed by a VC investor – Speed Up Venture Capital Group – and a private investor from UK.They acquired total funding of 300k euro which isn’t too shabby.
