Lavender started as an AI-driven browser extension to help people write better emails. But after meeting with a key group of their early users, co-founders Will Allred and Will Ballance told Hypepotamus they realized their platform could change the entire workflow for sales teams.
“Now, it’s about writing better emails faster,” said Allred.
Helping change a sales team’s workflow is an ambitious goal for any startup, but the Lavender team has rolled out some strategic integrations and new product launches over the course of the last few months to make it possible.
STREAMLINING PRODUCTIVITY
Productivity startups no doubt grabbed the spotlight in 2020, as companies and employees alike looked to streamline communication and workflows in a remote world.
For Lavender, productivity means keeping sales teams inside the inbox, thus avoiding the process of jumping between various enterprise software services.
Initially, Lavender’s platform provided social media insights to help build rapport in email conversations and highlighted problematic sentences before users hit send.
In the later part of 2020, the team pushed out 11 new products over the course of 11 days. New platforms features include:
- Automatic Email Address Verification
- Real-time email analysis and coaching
- Writing time per email
- Reading time
- Rapport-building social insights on your recipient and their company
- Checks to make sure you won’t land in spam
- One-click corrections to make your email more confident and concise
- Easy-Insert GIFs with emotion analysis
- Open Awareness
- Mobile Preview + Editor
- Outlook 365 integration
The team used Product Hunt Launch Day to release “Read the Room,” a feature that analyses inbound emails and replies so Lavender users know exactly how to respond based on how the other person is communicating. Additionally, the team landed on the #1 spot on Product Hunt, an impressive feat for a sales-focused platform.
SalesLoft & Outreach Integrations
On top of that, Lavender announced it will now integrate with SalesLoft and Outreach, two leading enterprise sales engagement platforms.
Such integrations will make Lavender “a bridge between that SalesLoft or Outreach instances and [a sales person’s] inbox,” added Allred.
Those interested in signing up for first-access to the SalesLoft and Outreach integrations can learn more here.
Atlanta’s Butler Rains, who led SalesLoft’s product team from 2016-2020 and is now Head of Product at Ambition, is an advisor to the co-founders. Max Altschuler, Founder of Sales Hacker and VP of Marketing + Sales Engagement at Outreach, has also come on to help the team as an advisor.
“Lavender’s unique blend of email intelligence and productivity tools work together to help users write better emails, while they write it,” Altschuler said. “The proactive nature of their email assistant is a game-changer: combining emotional and effectiveness analysis. Their new integration with Outreach is only the tip of the iceberg as we continue to partner with this fast-growing team.”
The new tools, integrations, and new set of advisors certainly appear to have caught the Internet’s attention. After landing on top of Product Hunt, Lavender is in the running to be Productivity Tool of the Year.
