Five years ago, a good friend of mine told me about an idea. He and a few friends were going to build a better way to respond to RFPs, and asked me for marketing help. Over a cup of coffee, we started to work on his company’s initial marketing strategy. That friend was Ganesh Shankar, and that idea was RFPIO Inc.
Although I had a gut-feeling that RFPIO was going to go far, even I couldn’t have imagined that RFPIO would not only become the industry-leading solution for RFP response, but would pioneer an entirely new category of response management.
Teams are still using RFPIO to respond to RFPs, but they’re also responding to RFIs, DDQs, Security Questionnaires, Bids, and Tenders. They’re using it to create Statements of Work, proactive proposals, and grant applications. They’re using it to look up information during sales calls, respond to support tickets, and manage content.
RFPIO has evolved. And our identity has evolved with it.
“RFPIO has grown and evolved far beyond our expectations. Our new look pays tribute to who we’ve become, without forgetting who we’ve always been.” Ganesh Shankar, CEO and Co-Founder of RFPIO
Chapter 1: A Better Response Starts Here
We’ve always known there was a better way to respond to RFPs. That’s where our story began: A solution for responders, by responders. That first-hand experience is what continues to drive us to make the platform better and better.
After launching the first AI-enabled solution to RFP response, the market responded almost immediately. At that point in time, the vast majority of companies were creating proposals from scratch, storing on hard drives, and collaborating across various platforms. Nothing was in one place.
For RFPIO’s early customers, our software became that place. Implementation was easy. Customers were reporting efficiency and ROI that seemed too good to be true. Sometimes we still pinch ourselves to make sure this isn’t all a dream.
Shortly thereafter, RFP Software was recognized as a category by industry analytics and customer review sites, accelerating our growth and enabling us to help more companies adopt a better way to respond.
Chapter 2: Growing by listening and learning
Our growth is grounded in what our users need. While we were once responders ourselves, we looked beyond our own experiences and actively listened to our customers. Their suggestions, feedback, and guidance play a pivotal role in our product design and development. We are proud to say that over 90% of customer feedback has been implemented or is in development.
As a result, we’ve defined and redefined what is possible for RFP Software. Today we offer the most advanced and user-friendly solution available, and we are the only RFP software with a patented import process, e-signature capabilities, and both ISO-27001 and SOC2 certification.
At the same time, we leaned into our community and our customers’ needs and requests to create an ecosystem, offering more integrations with third-party applications than anyone in our space.
As of today, we’ve welcomed over 1,000 customers to the RFPIO family. With over 150,000 users worldwide, RFPIO is the leading RFP software and every day we are still learning and still listening for opportunities to improve the experience for our customers.
The next chapter: Creating the future of response management, together
This segment of sales technology is at the very beginning of its digital transformation and we have only scratched the surface of what is possible.
What started as a software for the RFP response process, has since grown beyond what we imagined it could be. Once a point solution, RFPIO has become the go-to place to find answers to any and all questions.
But this is only the beginning. We’re poised to expand the world of response and excited about what the future holds for response management—our new logo, visual identity, and messaging is just the start of our next chapter.
To our customers: Thank you for believing in us. For supporting us. For growing with us.
To our employees: Thank you for trusting us, and for all your hard work that has made us who we are today.
And to the future: Bring it on. We’re ready to seize the opportunities that lay ahead—and excited for what’s to come. At RFPIO, the future is bright!
