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Yilmaz Köknar
Co-Founder & CEO at Superchat | We are hiring
Yilmaz Köknar is a renowned entrepreneur and a notable figure in the tech industry, having co-founded and led various successful ventures.
With a background in Product Management and Management and Technology, Yilmaz honed his skills at respected institutions like CODE University of Applied Sciences and Technical University of Munich.
He is prominently known as the former Co-Founder & CEO of Superchat, a thriving Series A SaaS start-up that has secured over $19M in funding.
Superchat, under his leadership, offers a cutting-edge messaging suite aimed at transforming customer and team communication for small and medium-sized businesses.
Yilmaz Köknar's entrepreneurial acumen has been acknowledged by prestigious investors such as Blossom Capital and 468 Capital, as well as the visionary founders of Trivago, Lieferando, and Lovoo.
Prior to his role at Superchat, Yilmaz also co-founded unicon, a project hosted at CODE showcasing his dedication to innovation and technology.
Currently, Yilmaz Köknar is a driving force behind Superchat's rapid growth trajectory and is focused on expanding the company's reach and impact within the industry.
For those interested in being part of this exciting journey, job opportunities at Superchat can be explored on their official job page.
Highlights
How these 3 people onboarded more than 2300 Customers?
The photo below was taken 5 minutes ago but the story starts in 2021
When we figured out how to close deals and onboard a Sales Team, we needed helping hands to onboard all those customers. In the picture below, you can see Maurizio, Inka, and Oliver, our initial Customer Success Team
Chapter 3 of the Superchat Journey: Building Our Customer Success Team
Maurizio studied Design and started as a Founders Associate at Superchat. Eventually, we asked him to handle some customer onboardings. Until then Mika had been managing most of them. Maurizio didn’t just jump into the cold water - he started swimming as if he had been doing it his whole life. He is a real Swiss Army knife, not treating an onboarding as just a call with a customer. His goal was to make the customers successful and build a process that would work for the thousands of customers to come
After more than 760 onboardings and countless automations and processes that he has built, he is now our Director of Operations and the master of processes at Superchat
Our learning at that time was that processes are key, and most of the time, the unlock moment is in the details. We worked a lot on streamlining everything, which included setting up tools to measure health scores and working a lot on the handovers from Sales
Inka joined a couple of months after Maurizio and did her first onboarding just 10 days after joining. In the first months thereafter, we rarely saw her sitting at her desk because she was constantly in a phone booth, calling and onboarding customers. That was probably also the most stressful time—we closed a lot but were still figuring things out and lacked clear closing criteria. So, Inka became the master of workarounds. There was a solution for almost every problem
898 onboardings later, she is now our Head of CS and leads a team of 20+ amazing problem solvers
The learning at that time was that it’s not an option to have an unsuccessful onboarding. We had no time; we knew if we didn’t make it in this meeting, it would be rescheduled, and there would be one less onboarding slot next week. Focus on the goal, be laser-sharp, and treat every onboarding slot as if it's the only time you have to onboard that customer
Oliver joined a couple of months after Inka. By that time, we already had some of the processes running, but he brought his genuine interest in people to the table. If you sit in an onboarding with Olli, his only goal is to be your companion who helps you set everything up. His authentic and extremely focused mindset helped us a lot
645 onboardings later, he transitioned into Partnerships and now serves as a Partner Manager, making our agency partners successful
The key learning during that time was, even if we onboard hundreds of customers per month, every onboarding should still be a 5-star experience for the customer. We are here to help and make them successful
Thank you, Maurizio, Inka, Oliver
How we went from closing 2-3 customers per week to closing over 100 customers per week.
In the picture, you can see our sales team celebrating hitting some quarterly goals at our anniversary party almost exactly a year ago.
Chapter 5 of the Superchat Journey: Building the GTM Team
After understanding what customers wanted, how to do the perfect demo, and how to onboard them, we knew it was time to build a sales team. We looked for people who were mostly at the beginning of their careers, intrinsically motivated, and hungry for success.
In the picture, you can see most of our very first sales managers (now sales leaders). None of them had worked in B2B SaaS sales before, and many hadn’t done sales at all. Some had never used Zoom before. They ranged in age from 22 to 53, with diverse educational backgrounds.
But they all had one thing in common: they were eager to learn and succeed!
Together, they closed multiple Millions in deal volume and thousands of customers. Sales is mostly about motivation. We can teach you everything about the tools you have to use and the product you have to sell, but ultimately, you create your own path.
Even today, if someone asks me what I do at Superchat, my answer is always: Sales. I sell the vision to my team, to investors, and the product to our customers.
Jesko did an apprenticeship before, started as a working student, and closed two of the largest deals in Superchat history. A couple of months later, Arian and Philipp started. Ari is now our Head of Sales, leading 30 sales managers. Philipp has been instrumental in shaping the team & culture. Then Eric started; there is probably no job Eric hasn’t done in his life, from managing Sarah Connor to owning a restaurant in Costa Rica. Now he is a Team Lead at Superchat and a closing machine. Then Lennart and Felix joined. They both became top closers and Lennart now leads our international sales team. Michi started as an intern, pioneered the sales assist position, and closed & onboarded hundreds of customers on his own.
They all started as sales managers or interns with little to no prior sales experience and are now the leaders of our sales team. They’ve earned their badges, and I couldn’t be prouder of them! Let’s see what the future holds for us!
This one is for you: Arian, Philipp, Jesko, Felix, Lennart, Michael and Eric.
Thank you, and let’s keep crushing it!
Chapter 6: Building the Customer Success Team
PS.: Since the photo was taken we worked very hard on making the Sales Team much more diverse.
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
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Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.
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