The ‘Request a Demo’ button is a pretty ubiquitous feature on a SaaS company’s website. The team behind Atlanta-based Tourial now wants to make that feature a more engaging and interactive part of the customer experience.
‘Tourials’ give software teams a no-code solution to build out custom product tutorials that go beyond static video or other sandbox tools. These Tourials can be put on websites or used in different marketing and sales channels as a way for customers to first interact with the product.
“You’re not just showing a screenshot or showing this UI without context,” said co-founder Jason Graub. “This is all about the product, showing the value and really sharing the story around that product in a cohesive and interactive way.”
That was something Graub and co-founder Andy Binkley experienced and talked about when they were both working at Gather Technologies (now Tripleseat), an event management software startup.
“A lot of the feedback that we got from buyers was that they wanted to see the product earlier in the marketing process. They wanted to actually see the product on the website or in a sales email before they had to commit to that 30 to 60-minute demo with an actual account executive,” Graub recounted to Hypepotamus.
You can get a sense of the product by taking a look at the gallery of customer Tourial examples.
Target customers are software businesses looking for better ways to connect with potential buyers during the sales process. It is designed specifically for those who have a product that is “visual and interactive” in nature, says Graub.
Its first paying customer was Terminus in June of 2020. Since then, Tourial has grown to help customers like Salesloft, UserIQ, and DataRobot.
Example of a self-guided tour of Terminus, powered by Tourial
Tourial raised $450,000 from angel investors in order to scale the team over the course of 2021. It ended 2021 with 13 total employees.
Graub said that most of the startup’s growth to date has been organic, adding that “our revenue growth was really about the market recognizing that these experiences are the future of B2B marketing and this is how people think about experiencing a product before they have to talk to the sales team.”
It is now starting off 2022 with the announcement of a $3.4 million seed round, led by Los Angeles-based Bonfire Ventures and with participation from previous investor Atlanta-based Knoll Ventures. SaaS Ventures, TnT Ventures, and angel investor Tom Noonan also joined the round.
The plan is to build the team to over 30 by the end of this year, according to Graub. The team is also focused on making sure Tourial integrates with the rest of the revenue ecosystem, be it lead generation or other marketing tools.
The Tourial Team
Graub says building in Atlanta, a city with a rich MarTech, SalesTech, and Product Web startup scene, has been a unique advantage early on for Tourial.
Co-founders Graub and Binkley met at Gather, where they worked as a general manager and senior performance marketing manager, respectively.
Graub previously worked as a CPA before dipping his toes in the startup world with his first venture up in Philadelphia.
Binkley left Gather in September of 2019 to work on Tourial, and Graub followed six months later.
For now, the founding team is focused on making ‘Tourials’ an integral part of the software sales cycle.
“I think five to ten years from now, instead of ‘Request a Demo’ or ‘Take a Free Trial,’ you’re going to see ‘Take a Tourial’ as the primary medium that people are using to really experience a company’s product for the first time, whether that’s on their website, a paid campaign, or even at a live event,” Graub added.
