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Ryan Robinett didn’t set out to build a technology company.
He certainly did not set out to build an AI company, he told Hypepotamus. A graduate of Auburn University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Robinett built up his career in the IT professional services world at companies like Accenture, CGI, and CTS before launching his consulting business. While working with companies, he kept running into “repeatable patterns” faced when training and building up salespeople.
Simply put: It’s hard for salespeople to get the feedback on their specific cold calls, elevator pitches, and sales demo meetings.
That’s why Robinett built Multiply, a Birmingham, Alabama-based AI-enabled SaaS startup designed specifically for sales teams. Its role-playing platform, known as Murphy (named after Robinett’s dog), works as a curated AI-based sales agent that ‘builds better salespeople.’
How Murphy Works
Customers log into Multiple and its Murphy platform and provide background, differentiators, offerings, and other unique details about their specific company. Once the message is built into the platform, sales teams, managers, and executives can use the platform to conduct simulated sales video and voice calls that provide scoring and feedback on how well the seller set up the meeting, covering important messaging, and got to “the ask.”
It can also provide feedback on the seller’s tone throughout the conversation.
It is all about helping sales leaders feel more confident while refining their pitch and approach.
“If you’re brand new to a company, it takes about eight weeks to get conversationally confident in the sales message,” Robinett said. But it takes even longer to work out the “muscle memory” around delivering a strong elevator pitch, long-form presentation, and full-blown sales pitch.
While Murphy can certainly help during the onboarding and training process, Robinett said it can also help with maintenance through weekly check-ins.
Right now, Murphy grades how well a seller pitches. But the startup is actively rolling out its “interactive training module.” In the coming weeks, it will “[derive] contextual questions from the messaging or questions and answers the company anticipates its sellers getting. Murphy will then grade their ability to pitch, manage “the room” with interruptions, and answer questions / objections.”
“With this feature, Multiply will be a ‘cradle to grave’ sales training and verification platform. Murphy will train sellers on what to say, when to say it, and how to say it prior to live meetings…Then verify that they are executing as they should in live meetings,” he added.
AI…Without The Generative Prompts
Robinett isn’t interested in building just another AI startup is a glorified ChatGPT wrapper. In fact, he said that Multiply breaks out of the standard AI model that centers around generative prompts and answering user questions.
“Everybody thinks of AI as ChatGPT Grok…a generative prompt that you put information a question in and then you get information back. But [Multiply] does not want the model’s opinion on a sales process,” Robinett said. “[Users] define the answer that is right. AI is contextualizing [voice and video inputs], and Murphy is then able to provide feedback based on [the company’s] definition.”
In early stages, Multiply’s target customer base includes enterprises and growth-stage companies that are scaling their sales teams. But it has already helped startup entrepreneurs looking to refine their sales pitch.
At its current stage, Robinett relies heavily on consultants to round out its team. Robinett is currently one of two W2 employees on payroll, with the team just adding a Manager of Customer Success leader. He is currently working towards adding 1,000 users to the platform this year.
