The “Wix for sales teams” enables product demos without relying on engineers, designers, and other technical experts for customization
Walnut, a platform that provides sales teams with the ability to create and execute product demos without the need for technical expertise in driving the customer sales journey, has announced a seed funding round of $2.5 million.
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This round was led by venture capital firm NFX and includes additional investments from notable industry incumbents, including Wix CEO Avishay Abrahami, Liquid2 Partners Joe Montana and Michael Ma, Graph Ventures Partner Matt Wyndowe, Plangrid Co-Founder Kenny Stone, Former YCombinator PT Partner and current Mercury CEO Immad Akhund, and RoundForest CEO Alon Gamzu.
Walnut enhances the sales journey by enabling sales professionals and teams to personalize the demo experience without the need for back-end technical expertise from software developers, graphic designers, and data scientists. It is a no-code, drag-and-drop solution that puts a highlight on the customer narrative. Sales representatives can use storylines in their delivery, which are customizable templates based on previously successful ones but are specific to each client, vertical, or company in the current sales pitch.
The platform empowers sales representatives or even company executives by running product demos as a live experience, even when the actual product is offline or in development. Users can add or remove features, personalize the content, and gain access to data insights that can make the presentation more effective.
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Having the capability to do a live demo without depending on the product being fully online or functional, puts focus on the customer experience and reduces the risk of technical glitches.
“Twenty-two years ago, Bill Gates went on stage to showcase Windows 98 and was met with the ‘blue screen of death’ in front of the entire world. Many years have passed since that iconic moment, many industries have been re-invented, but one thing hasn’t changed–showcasing your product in real-time is a terrifying experience,” says Yoav Vilner, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Walnut.
“Over the past six months, we focused our resources on perfecting the combination of multiple technologies to provide sales teams with the tools needed for frictionless customized and optimized product demos. We realized that the need for such a service increased massively since the onset of the pandemic, as remote sales became common practice,” Vilner adds.
Apart from customizing the sales demo experience, Walnut also enhances sales teams’ capabilities in targeting their sales messaging based on data and automation.
“Our mission is to turn inside sales from an art form to a science. By doing so we can remove the guesswork from the methods in which tech companies are currently selling their products, mostly relying on human touch and personal talent of salespeople. By fully automating the process, sales teams will be equipped to perform exponentially better, with minimal effort and at a much higher conversion rate,” says Vilner.
Designed to scale from startup to enterprise user, Walnut is currently being used by companies such as data security firm Varonis (NASDAQ:VRNS) and SaaS provider Namogoo. With the seed investment, Walnut is set to approach a growing market and address the opportunities in sales across industries.
“Besides having a great team, we found Walnut an appealing investment as they approach a big market and are solving a cross-vertical problem,” says Gigi Levy-Weiss, managing partner at NFX. “Nearly every company has to face the challenges of demonstrating live products during sales calls. Now with the switch to remote sales, the product is seeing a surge in demand from early-bird clients and the waiting list is growing every day.”
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