Startup Success: From a two-person team to US$1.3M revenue – Paillor’s rise

As part of our series exploring successful startup stories from our events, we spoke with Dogan Akbulut, founder and CEO of Toronto-based Paillor.

Paillor is an AI-driven workflow platform that helps companies automate their HR and IT tasks.

When Paillor attended Collision (our former North American event, succeeded by Web Summit Vancouver) in 2023, they were a new startup: a team of two with two customers. As a direct result of connections made at the event, their team has grown to 20 people and their annual recurring revenue (ARR) is at US$1.3 million.

We spoke with Dogan about the startup’s trajectory, their experience at Collision , and how it impacted their path to success.

How did you come up with the idea for Paillor, and what does it do?

I have been deeply involved in the tech support industry for many years, consistently focusing on addressing direct employee challenges and seeking ways to automate problem-solving processes. This pursuit of efficiency and effectiveness led to the creation of Paillor.

Paillor is essentially an AI co-pilot designed to revolutionize the way businesses handle internal support queries. It’s a comprehensive solution that empowers employees to resolve their issues autonomously, without needing to rely on human intervention.

Our platform is tailored to facilitate collaboration across IT, HR, operations and more, enabling teams to address a broad spectrum of employee needs. This includes managing software requests and sick leave, troubleshooting, password resets, and streamlining both the onboarding and offboarding processes.

Through Paillor, we aim to enhance workplace productivity by making information and solutions more accessible to everyone within an organization.

How did you first learn about our event?

Our company is based in Toronto and, in Canada, Collision is a major event that’s impossible to overlook. Despite its prominence, our introduction came through a more personal connection: a friend referred us, highlighting Collision’s startup program as a potentially great opportunity for us.

Which of our events have you been to?

Collision 2023, which has been my first – and most memorable – event.

What stage of development was the company at before you went to the event?

Before attending the event, our company – then known as Firmamen – was at a crucial juncture. We were in the process of welcoming our first customers and were working towards finding our product-market fit.

Collision represented a pivotal moment for us, offering the opportunity to validate our approach and gain invaluable insights into accelerating our growth in the right direction.

Did attending the event have a positive impact on your business development?

The impact of attending Collision on our startup has been incredibly amazing. Before Collision, we only had two customers, but the event radically transformed our trajectory. Currently, we have 28 customers and a total of 11,000 end-users who use our app on a daily basis.

In the nine months since the event, we’ve achieved a milestone of US$1.3 million in ARR. By the end of 2024, we are expecting to close on US$5 million ARR.

We are so grateful to Collision. Everything started with that. It is the dream of I would say 99.9 percent of startups to be where we are after eight or nine months. In my mind, I couldn’t have imagined being at this position.

What did you do while at the event?

At Collision, we had the opportunity to connect with more than 340 IT decision-makers, receiving invaluable feedback about our product. This feedback was crucial in helping us refine our offering and achieve product-market fit. Before the event, our team consisted of just two members. Now, we’ve grown to 20 people and are scaling quickly.

Initially, we believed that seeking investment from venture capitalists was our only path forward. However, Collision opened our eyes to the possibility of bootstrapping and organically expanding our reach to global markets – a prospect we previously thought was limited to Canada and the US.

This experience has not only accelerated our growth, but also broadened our perspective on how to succeed in the tech industry.

Are you coming to Collision 2024?

We definitely will, and this year is going to be much bigger for us. We have a bigger team. We have the perfect product-market fit. Now we can approach way bigger clients.

Web Summit is coming to Vancouver in 2025. Don’t miss out.

Main image of Dogan Akbulut, founder and CEO, and Adam Kamaneh, employee at Paillor: Web Summit