From Skepticism to 300% Growth: Inside Crowdbotics’ Strategy for Selling AI Before It Was Cool

Long before ChatGPT made AI a household term, Crowdbotics was betting their entire business on it. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Anand Kulkarni revealed how they turned early market skepticism into massive growth by taking an unconventional approach to selling AI technology.

The Early Believer’s Challenge

“We were one of the first commercial users of chat, GPT, excuse me, of GPT-3, on their API,” Anand explains. “And we actually started the company Crowdbotics based on what I was seeing happening in the early research space around large language models.”

Back in 2016-2017, Anand spotted something others missed in early AI research. “When I saw this in 2017, 2016, I said, look, this is probably the future, and we got to go out and get ahead of this.” But being ahead of the market created a unique challenge: how do you sell something people don’t yet believe in?

Facing the Skeptics

The initial response was predictable. “Were working on the same technology in the market two years ago, and people just didn’t believe us,” Anand recalls. “We showed them technology showing that you could use artificial intelligence to plan software, use AI to write code. People said, yeah, well, okay, but can you really?”

Instead of trying to convince skeptics about AI’s potential, Crowdbotics took a different approach. They focused on immediate, practical value that customers could understand and verify.

The Modular Solution

Rather than leading with AI, they emphasized their modular approach to software development. “We are snapping together, recommending, selecting big building blocks of code into functional software,” Anand explains. This resonated with customers because it aligned with how they already built software: finding and combining existing libraries.

“We didn’t need to have people buy that bigger vision, as long as they were willing to understand at a different level how the software was able to work,” Anand notes. This pragmatic approach allowed them to gain traction while still working toward their larger AI-driven vision.

Building for the Long Term

While others now rush to capitalize on AI hype, Crowdbotics maintained their focus on creating lasting value. “You got to build a company that’s going to be relevant over ten years, not over the six months or twelve months that there is a dynamic hype cycle around language models,” Anand emphasizes.

This long-term perspective helped them build something more substantial than just another AI wrapper. “To generate durable value here, you’ve got to have an approach that actually creates systemic value for the customer by doing something that is more than just what those tools are doing,” Anand explains.

The Validation

The results validate their approach. “For the last three years, we have doubled or tripled top line revenue every year. So 200% to 300% growth,” Anand shares. Now that AI has hit mainstream awareness, they’re experiencing what Anand calls “massive tailwinds from the market, driving customers straight into our hands.”

Lessons for Founders in Emerging Tech

For founders building in emerging technology markets, Crowdbotics’ journey offers several key insights:

• Focus on immediate practical value over future potential
• Build for long-term relevance beyond current trends
• Let customers understand your product in familiar terms
• Create systemic value that transcends the technology
• Maintain your vision while meeting current market needs

The current AI boom has validated Crowdbotics’ early bet, but their success came from how they executed rather than their timing. By focusing on practical value and building for the long term, they created something that could succeed whether or not AI hit mainstream adoption.