For Sachin Jaiswal, a serial entrepreneur with a passion for innovation, the road to success has been paved with hard lessons, resilience, and an unwavering belief in experimentation. As the founder of Kim.cc, an AI-powered customer support platform designed for small businesses, Sachin brings a wealth of experience from his previous ventures into shaping a new vision for customer service in the digital age. Today, Sachin shares his journey through three startups, the challenges he’s faced along the way, and the lessons that have guided his career.

The Genesis of Kim.cc: Solving a Real Problem

The spark for Kim.cc was born out of Sachin’s personal experience during his second entrepreneurial venture—an e-commerce startup in India. “We had just launched a campaign, and suddenly, we were hit with over 2,000 customer inquiries—20 times more than usual. We weren’t equipped to handle that volume, and our Play Store rating dropped from 4.8 to 3 stars in just a weekend,” he recalls. “That was a wake-up call for me. It was a reminder of how critical customer service is, not just for growth but for survival.”

This experience stuck with Sachin as he later moved into a leadership role at a major food delivery platform, managing a staggering one million customer inquiries a week. There, he saw firsthand what enterprise-grade customer service looked like. “I realized that small and growing brands were struggling to provide the same level of support, and that’s when the idea for Kim.cc really took root,” he says.

With Kim.cc, Sachin aims to democratize high-quality customer support, making it accessible to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), particularly in the Shopify ecosystem. “Great customer service should not just be the domain of large enterprises. Small businesses deserve the same tools and capabilities,” Sachin emphasizes.

Lessons from the Past: Hard-Won Wisdom

Sachin’s journey has been one of constant learning, both from his successes and his failures. Having founded and exited two previous businesses, he understands the critical role of thoughtful, intentional design in a company’s growth. “Design is a conscious choice,” he explains. “You have to design your business around the kind of people you want to work with, the skills you need, and the culture you want to build.”

One of the hardest lessons he’s learned is the importance of nailing product-market fit before scaling. “It’s tempting to scale early, especially when there’s money chasing you, but you need a strong pull from the market before you make that leap. Scaling too soon can be fatal,” he advises.

In Sachin’s view, entrepreneurship is about more than just building a product or making money. It’s about creating a business that can stand the test of time—one that is designed for defensibility and network effects. “I’ve learned to ask myself three questions: Why are we placed to win? Why are we placed to win big? And why are we placed to win at all?”

Navigating the Challenges: Go-to-Market and GTM Pivots

Despite his experience, Sachin admits that his third venture has presented new challenges, particularly in terms of go-to-market (GTM) strategies. “In my first venture, email marketing worked well, but we quickly learned that the same approach wasn’t going to cut it for Kim.cc. It’s been ten years since my first startup, and the landscape has changed dramatically—people are inundated with emails now, so outbound email strategies don’t work as effectively,” he says.

This realization led to a significant pivot in their GTM strategy. Sachin and his team shifted from outbound email campaigns to an inbound approach, focusing on search engine optimization (SEO) and app store optimization. “It’s still a work in progress, but we’re seeing more success with inbound strategies than we ever did with outbound,” he says.

Harnessing the Power of AI: A Human-Centric Approach

While Kim.cc leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance customer support, Sachin believes that the future of AI in this space will be a partnership between humans and machines, rather than machines taking over completely. “The future isn’t about replacing humans; it’s about complementing them. AI can reduce the grunt work, but humans will always be needed to provide the quality control and nuanced judgment that AI can’t replicate,” he explains.

Sachin envisions a future where AI assists humans in providing customer support more efficiently, allowing small businesses to offer 24/7 service at a fraction of the cost. “Our goal is to make customer service as affordable for small businesses as it is for enterprises like Uber or Airbnb,” he says.

The Personal Side of Entrepreneurship: Mindset Matters

When asked about the personal challenges of entrepreneurship, Sachin doesn’t hesitate to acknowledge the difficulties. “It’s tough—really tough. Entrepreneurship is like jumping off a cliff and building a parachute on the way down. You’re going to fail 99% of the time, and even when you succeed, there are constant setbacks along the way.”

He speaks candidly about the mindset needed to persevere through these challenges. “You have to embrace failure as a learning opportunity. It’s easy to say, but when you’re in it, when you’re dealing with the fallout of a failed strategy or a missed target, it’s hard not to give up. But that’s when mindset becomes everything.”

According to Sachin, one of the most important qualities for any entrepreneur is grit—the ability to persist in the face of failure, but with a fresh approach each time. “There’s a fine line between persistence and being adamant,” he says. “You need to be open to learning, to pivoting when things aren’t working, but also committed to seeing things through.”

Looking Forward: Building for the Future

Sachin’s vision for the future of Kim.cc is ambitious. “We’re building a marketplace for customer support that leverages AI in a way that can disrupt the current ecosystem. I believe we can offer something truly unique—an affordable, scalable solution for small businesses that combines the power of AI with human expertise.”

At the heart of this vision is a desire to help other entrepreneurs avoid the pitfalls he encountered in his earlier ventures. “I don’t want other small businesses to go through what I did with my e-commerce startup. Kim.cc is about giving them the tools to succeed from the start.”

For Sachin Jaiswal, the entrepreneurial journey is far from over. But with each new venture, he brings the hard-won lessons of the past, a deep commitment to innovation, and a passion for helping others succeed.

Connect with Sachin Jaiswal on LinkedIn