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TestBox — Test drive your software options before you buy
Test and compare enterprise software options side-by-side before you buy. No more slides, sales pitches, demos, and unfulfilled promises. Reclaim the purchasing process and feel confident in your decision. It’s FREE, no strings attached.
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Eithiriel DeMerè | Language-Market Fit
Hunter
Enterprise Software has come a long way in the last decade but we’re still stuck in the painful traditional sales process of demos and sales calls. We've all wanted to get our hands on a real environment and compare options and now it's possible.
It’s why I’m thrilled to be sharing TestBox with you all. @samuelbsenior and @peter_testbox have built the first Customer-Led buying platform that means you can actually test drive your software options side-by-side before buying. No more needing to go through a long sales process instead self-serve and buy on your own terms.
The way they’ve built TestBox is really cool - they use OpenAI to generate data that looks like your own company and then automatically build out all the most important use cases for your team. Meaning you get the same experience for a like for like comparison across multiple software platforms.
They even make it easier to collaborate with your team by having all feedback built into the testing experience, no more wrangling Google Sheets.
Right now they’ve built for Customer Support software but are expanding into more verticals soon.
TestBox is going to be huge for both buyers and sellers of software by making it faster and easier to self-serve and get to a software decision with confidence.
Congrats to Sam and Peter, excited to continue seeing TestBox flourish. 🥳
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This is such a ridiculously helpful tool for software buyers. No more imagining how SAAS would work with your data, you just get to try it. We at SignalFire are honored to be investors
@mhafellner Thanks Markus - we'll nail our model with this niche and then quickly expand to more tools. Looking forward to having what you need.
@lapartyboy We've purposefully built the company to reduce as much friction in the buying process as possible and be agnostic in what you buy. Hence being free. We are paid by vendors when you buy a license after using TestBox. We get paid roughly the same no matter which vendor you choose, so we have no incentive to push you towards a specific vendor.
@lapartyboy No worries - hopefully we'll have the right software for you when you're next buying and we can help make the process easier (maybe even enjoyable?) for you.
Hey @samuelbsenior - love it. Completely relate to the pain point. I am curious, how are you guys intending on marketing this? The buying process happens so infrequently with so many different decision makers throughout a company. Is the plan to build brand awareness and be top of mind when that time comes? Seems like a hard ad strategy. Just curious what you guys are thinking because in the travel space it is a shared problem and always looking to see what others are doing.
@rejust Hey Justin - it's one of the biggest pieces we are focusing on. We are combining a community driven approach with the typical SaaS GTM like outbound prospecting. On community driven we are partnering with some large communities associated with our software verticals. Inside the community we aim to be a source of help for them when they have questions on their software and when appropriate directing them to TestBox if they are looking to buy a new platform. There are also some signals around growth of headcount for each function, new funding round etc. that we are using to think through the appropriate time to do tailored outreach. As we build into more software verticals however this becomes less of a bottom-up approach as we can go to a CIO/CTO and say here is the ability to test all of this particularly department/function software. So a large part of it is continuing to be thoughtful in which verticals to expand into.
Huge congratulations on this launch! Very exciting times. I can't wait for TestBox to expand beyond the current use cases. This tool would've been immensely helpful during the many cumbersome software evaluations that I've gone through.
Buying software is often klunky and mystical - and people (myself included) are always looking for a way to maintain more control in the sales process. Congrats on building a great tool to solve this ever growing problem!
This is epic - I HATE the enterprise sales process from a buyer's perspective and I'm keen to see this problem fixed.
Congrats to the team on the launch!!
@rami_kalai Thanks Rami! We're working hard on it and making about you as the buyer not the sales process. Is there a particular type of software you'd be most excited to see? We're prioritizing based on user feedback.
@samuelbsenior I've yet to encounter a more complicated sales process that really doesn't need to be as that of buying ATS software...
As the founder of a SaaS company, could I be listed as a solution within testbox for your users to try out? Or are you focusing only on CS related solutions at the moment? Congrats on the launch!
@dan__cleary Thank you Dan - appreciate the support. We are purposefully focused on Customer Support to begin with (both @peter_testbox and I were Support agents in a previous life so have direct experience). We want to get the experience right and build the repeatable model for scaling. Our goal is to expand significantly next year and we're looking to people like yourself and other software buyers to see what really makes sense to expand into next. I'd love to keep you updated as we grow and scale into new verticals.
@peter_testbox @samuelbsenior Got it thanks Sam, please keep me updated and feel free to reach out! A friend of mine runs a CS company (YC Alum) that focuses on enterprise scale. If you like (and think it could be helpful) I would be happy to make an intro?
“Suddenly you’re on a two hour enterprise call with Steve from Enterprise sales” When did you talk to my husband? 😂.
@sarah_wright7 😂 as we were initially designing TestBox we actually spoke to a lot of Enterprise Account Execs thinking they'd not be overly keen - one of the most exciting things I learned is that most AE's would be eager to use TestBox as part of their process as it would enable them to A) Focus on generating more pipeline B) Reduce the mid-funnel work on their side that often doesn't go anywhere C) Enable them to actually make their customers experience better and solve their needs rather than having to sell all the time. Hopefully your Husband and Enterprise Steve agree.
Love the idea, having searched for software myself, it is a painful process. I'll give this a try.
Thank you so much for hunting us @nikkielizdemere
The inspiration for TestBox came from repeatedly hearing just how incredibly frustrating the software buying experience is – from the Enterprise software buyers I worked with to sales reps at large tech companies and even my own friends. In every conversation, I heard similar stories where buyers felt that the process was all on the sales team’s terms, often taking many months, and without all the information and access they needed to be truly confident in their decision.
@peter_testbox and I built TestBox to change that. TestBox is the first truly Customer-Led buying experience. Our self-serve platform is all about empowering the end buyer to buy on their own terms, without needing to go through the typical sales process. We have actively chosen a business model that allows us to provide a free service to the buyer so that it’s accessible to any company of any size.
TestBox gives buyers a true side-by-side experience of each product so buyers can test if each solution will truly work for their team. It’s also super easy for buyers to track their feedback on each product and collaborate with their teams to ensure that they make the right decision the first time.
Today we’re live with Customer Support software (Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Hubspot so far and in partnership conversation with other vendors as well) and we will be expanding to more vendors and across more verticals (like CRM, Customer Success, etc.) very soon. We’re really excited to be building the first truly Customer-Led buying experience and hope it’s the best buying anyone has had for Enterprise Software.
Thanks @nikkielizdemere, you're an absolute legend! (one of the highest honors an Australian can give)
I met @samuelbsenior when we were both studying CompSci and working as customer support heroes. We quickly became good friends and had many conversations about building something awesome together – I always knew it was only a matter of time. Fast forward to last year when Sam first brought the TestBox idea to me. I was immediately excited. Not only was there an opportunity to dramatically change software buying to be about the customer, but I’d get to work with my best friend!
As we researched and refined the idea, we grew increasingly confident that we could build something that software buyers would find valuable. We then found some awesome people who believed in our vision and together we’ve already been able to release our platform to the world and we’re all super excited to see it become the standard for companies when buying.
Over the past year, we’ve overcome some challenging technical obstacles like how to embed another company’s product within our platform without compromising security. (Hint: we built a very advanced proxy service.) How do we build interactions between our platform and the products that we’re embedding? How do we quickly build up unique environments for each of our users? With the help of an awesome team, we’re really proud and excited to share TestBox for our first vertical, Customer Support (Zendesk, Hubspot, Freshdesk...more coming soon).
Over the coming months, you’ll see us build out our TestBox for Sales, TestBox Insights and move into more and more verticals. There will be many more challenges along the way, but we’re up for it!
Woah, this is insane. Will definitely be coming back to this before I buy software next.
