How SquadStack is Winning the AI Services Race with Apurv Agrawal

Founder Thesis

How did Apurv Agrawal transform SquadStack from a data collection startup into India's leading AI-powered BPO generating ₹200+ crore ARR?

This episode reveals the 10-year journey to finding true product-market fit and disrupting India's massive outsourcing industry. Apurv Agrawal, Co-Founder and CEO of SquadStack, shares the remarkable evolution from Squadrun's gig economy roots to becoming India's most advanced AI-native contact center platform. Starting as a horizontal marketplace for data collection tasks, SquadStack pivoted multiple times before discovering their breakthrough in distributed calling services during COVID-19. What began as weekend experiments became enterprise solutions for major brands like Kotak, Axis Bank, and Bajaj. Apurv reveals how they built a billion-interaction dataset, achieved 95% AI implementation success rates while competitors fail, and created a unique hybrid workforce combining stay-at-home professionals with local agencies across tier-2 and tier-3 cities. He candidly discusses the emotional definition of PMF, why founders can't fight market forces, and his contrarian leadership philosophy of "leading with love" that attracted 19% ex-founders to his team. With voice cloning technology and hyper-personalized customer journeys, SquadStack is reshaping how enterprises handle sales, support, and collections through AI-human collaboration. He shared this transformative journey in this insightful conversation with host Akshay Datt, offering invaluable lessons on market timing, vertical focus, and building sustainable competitive moats in the AI era.

Key insights you'll discover:

👉How Apurv built SquadStack into a ₹200+ crore ARR leader through strategic pivots and market timing

👉Lessons from transitioning from horizontal gig marketplace to vertical AI-BPO specialist serving enterprise customers

👉SquadStack's breakthrough approach to distributed workforce management combining individual professionals with agency partnerships across India

👉Revolutionary AI implementation strategies achieving 95% success rates while industry reports 95% failure rates

👉Deep dive into voice cloning technology and hyper-personalized customer journey automation transforming contact center operations

👉Founder philosophy on high-agency hiring

👉Ubuntu leadership principles, and why love-based culture attracts exceptional entrepreneurial talent

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Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the speaker, not necessarily the channel