The Product Management Simplifiers What makes its product or service unique compared to competitors? Their deep, specialized focus on the craft of product management is the key

The idea for Zeda. io sprouted from Prashant Mahajan's frustration due to inefficiencies in strategizing, planning, and building during his time at companies like Paytm, Tokopedia, and Branch.io. He firmly feels that despite the universal goal of building great products, most companies fall short.

During the pandemic, it became clear that a transformational shift was on the horizon. "Inspired by the success of GitHub's AI Copilot, I saw an opportunity to harness AI to enhance product development processes," said Prashant Mahajan, CEO, Zeda. io. Mahajan was joined by Vaibhav Devpura a few months later to build Zeda.io. "The initial vision for Zeda. io was to enable product managers to focus on strategic and creative tasks, solving customer pain points, and creating business value, rather than getting bogged down by operational tasks like managing Jira tickets, updating timelines, and handling communication. These repetitive tasks could be automated, allowing product managers to concentrate on what truly matters—driving innovation and value," said Vaibhav Devpura, CTO, Zeda.io.

The startup is addressing the critical challenge of enabling product teams to listen to their customers at scale. It takes feedback vigorously and centralizes the voice of the customer to improve the offering.

"By integrating with various tools, we bring together feedback and insights from customer-facing teams into a single platform. Our solution analyzes this data to uncover key trends, themes, pain points, feature requests, revenue opportunities, and reasons for churn. This comprehensive analysis helps product teams prioritize their roadmap effectively," adds Mahajan.

What makes its product or service unique compared to competitors? Their deep, specialized focus on the craft of product management is the key. "We also ensure alignment with the company's OKRs, balancing user demands with business objectives. This approach ensures that product teams not only understand what their customers need but also how to translate those needs into actionable plans that drive value for both customers and the company," shares Devpura.

According to the duo, while other existing tools cater to a broader market - covering project management for developers, marketers, sales teams, and more - their platform is designed specifically for product managers. "Our uniqueness lies in our ability to automate the product management process comprehensively. We combine product discovery with planning, helping teams identify what should go into the roadmap and why," adds Mahajan.

The support from investors has been a significant motivator for Zeda.io. "Building a brand in the product management space was one of the biggest challenges we faced and overcame. Product managers are critical and hard to impress as a persona, and the product for any company is crucial, so building a brand that product managers and companies can trust has been key for us," shares the CTO.

Where does the duo see the startup in the next 5 years? "In the next five years, we envision Zeda.io becoming the default tool for product discovery and planning. Product management encompasses several phases: discovery (identifying what to build), planning (roadmapping and OKRs), execution (defining the product, writing PRDs, creating user flows, and managing Jira tickets), and launch (GTM strategy, launch strategy, measuring impact). Currently, our focus is on product discovery and planning. In the next 5 years we want to expand to execution and launch too," the duo noted.

Any advice for budding entrepreneurs? "My advice is to embrace failure as part of the journey. Understand that failure is not the end, but a valuable learning experience. The safety net of a job can always be a fallback, but the potential rewards of entrepreneurship far outweigh the risks. Taking that leap of faith can be life-changing - it was for me, and it can be for you too," concludes Mahajan.

Factsheet

Amount Of External Funding Received: $3.7m

Number Of People Employed: 15

Year Of Inception: 2021

Key Customers: Master Control, Thena.ai, Luma Health, Bizongo, Netcore