GLADLY

Gladly was born inside Greylock, the venture firm, where Joseph Ansanelli was a partner. Ansanelli was not a first-timer.

He had already built and sold companies, including Vontu, a data-security firm he sold to Symantec. In 2014 he teamed up with Michael Wolfe and Dirk Kessler to start Gladly.

The frustration that kicked it off was personal and universal. Everyone hates calling customer support and repeating their whole story to a stranger who has no idea who they are.

Ansanelli wanted software that remembered the customer, not just the ticket. Greylock incubated the idea, and Gladly spun out to build it.

Companies pay Gladly a subscription to run their customer service. Instead of charging per ticket like older tools, Gladly organizes everything around the individual customer.

An agent opening a conversation sees the person's entire history in one timeline, whether they emailed last week or are calling right now. Businesses pay based on the number of agents and the features they use.

The pitch to a brand is that happier, better-informed agents keep customers loyal, and loyal customers spend more. Gladly sells the software, and the brand keeps the relationship.

The core product is the Gladly customer service platform, a single screen where an agent sees a customer's whole history as one conversation across every channel. Gladly Sidekick is its AI layer, built to handle routine questions and help human agents move faster.

There are also tools for voice, messaging, and self-service help. The through-line is the customer timeline.

Everything an agent needs about a person sits in one place instead of scattered across a pile of separate tickets.

Gladly grew by chasing brands that live and die on customer loyalty. Think retailers and consumer companies where a good support experience turns into repeat purchases.

Its whole message, people not tickets, was built to appeal to companies that treat support as part of the brand rather than a cost to cut. Being incubated at Greylock gave it money, credibility, and a network from day one.

Rather than trying to serve every business on Earth, Gladly aimed at the premium end where customer experience is basically the product.

Gladly plays in a brutal neighborhood. Zendesk, Salesforce, and Intercom are all bigger and all selling customer service software.

Convincing a company to rip out the tool it already uses and rebuild support around a new idea is a hard, slow sell. On top of that, AI changed the rules.

Every rival is now racing to build bots that answer customers automatically. Gladly has to prove its people-first approach still wins in a world where a machine handles the first reply.

Staying independent and well-funded against giants is the ongoing fight.

Gladly has raised about $208 million. It was incubated at Greylock, which led its early funding.

New Enterprise Associates, GGV Capital, Future Fund, Glynn Capital, and Riverwood Capital all put in money over the years. The backer list reads like a who's-who of enterprise software investors betting that customer service was overdue for a rethink.

Joseph Ansanelli's own history as a Greylock partner and repeat founder made the firm an easy yes. The money let Gladly chase big brands without rushing to turn a profit.