Y Combinator backs IIT-M grads with $5L funding

CHENNAI: Clueso, which helps customers create in-app tours, founded by IIT-M grads Prajwal Prakash, Neel Balar, and Akash Anand, have received $5,00,000 from Y Combinator.

Taking to social media, Neel said “Super stoked to launch our new start-up Clueso, and announce that we’ve raised a pre-seed round of $500K from Y Combinator! From leaving the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras placements to build Desklamp, to getting into YC, to pivoting to a completely different idea – it’s been a roller coaster ride! Every step of the way has been full of new experiences.”

He went on to add “Thanks to our YC group partners, Brad Flora and Puneet Kumar for believing in us and extending their constant support!” Clueso helps SaaS apps provide self-serve help experience to their users.

As per Neel, the idea had been in the back of their minds, even while building Desklamp (a note-taking tool for students and researchers). “Our users would repeatedly ask us similar questions on email, WhatsApp, or Discord about how to use the product. Clueso would have solved all our problems!”

Akash described Clueso as an assistance for customer success teams to save time in creating and maintaining help content for SaaS apps. “Our product converts simple screen recordings into interactive product tours and how-to guides that stay up-to-date with every product release,” he said.

Since users of SaaS apps have a hard time discovering new features and finding what they’re looking for, even on products with a well-designed UX, the trio came up with Clueso.

Noting that creating help guides on tools like Intercom is time-consuming, Akash said “you have to put together screenshots, write out instructions, and make everything look presentable. Making interactive tours is even more work.

“And what happens when you deploy new UI updates? All your hard work goes down the drain, and you have to start from scratch. Clueso therefore, lets you create help guides for product features in seconds rather than hours. With every new update on your app, all guides are automatically tested. Outdated guides are flagged so that you know exactly which ones need to be reworked.”