Every company, large or small, needs to choose software, and the bigger the company, the more complex the exercise. Some have internal tools and processes to help narrow down the list of possible vendors and eventually make a selection. Others use firms like Gartner or G2 to help guide them through the process.
Taloflow, an early-stage startup and Y Combinator alum, believes it has found a better, software-driven approach to aid companies in selecting software, reducing the time and cost of the process. On Wednesday, the company announced its $1.3 million seed round and the release of its AI-driven collaborative notebooks, which allow customers to build custom software evaluation reports.
“Taloflow replaces homegrown technology and software selection processes that can last weeks or months,” the startup’s CEO and co-founder, Louis-Victor Jadavji, told TechCrunch. “Unlike Gartner or G2, which offer mostly generic insights, Taloflow creates tailored reports for specific use cases,” he said.
The company has developed a series of base reports for various categories, such as ERP or cloud cost control, utilizing both public information and the expertise of industry professionals. Users can choose a category, like cloud cost control, and refine it to a more specific topic, such as FinOps. Taloflow will then generate a report in the form of a collaborative notebook.
The basic report serves as a starting point. The notebook operates similarly to Google Docs, enabling multiple participants to edit, comment, and modify the requirements, and assign weights to those requirements based on their importance. These weights can influence the final decisions.
The Taloflow notebook allows multiple users to edit and comment on the report. Image Credits: Taloflow
The report includes the reasoning behind the choices, and can even produce requests for proposal with the necessary requirements for potential vendors.
It’s worth noting that AI plays a crucial role in these reports. Taloflow has developed large language models that analyze publicly available information, accelerating the time and cost of generating the base reports.
The co-founders, Jadavji and Todd Kesselman (along with Jason Kim, who has since left the company), became aware of the need for a solution like this during their time in the YC W21 batch. “We interviewed approximately 70 CTOs and engineering managers and discovered that decisions related to tech stacks – such as choosing vendors or deciding between buying or building – were increasingly complex and time-consuming,” Jadavji explained.
They discovered that these processes were often long and unsuccessful in finding solutions that met the organization’s goals and requirements. “We decided to develop a product that caters to the specific needs of enterprises, utilizing LLMs to scale our research and eventually creating the collaborative notebook.”
The company reports having hundreds of loyal customers, including three Fortune 500 companies. So far, there are only five full-time employees, but Jadavji plans to hire more, especially analysts.
Today’s funding came from Wonder Ventures, First Check Ventures, and several industry angels, including founders from Hootsuite, Opendoor, and Sacra.
