322: The Rise Of Messenger Marketing, With ManyChat Co-Founder and CEO Mikael Yan

<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mikael Yan, Co-Founder and CEO, ManyChat</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When Mikael Yan launched ManyChat in 2015, other messaging apps were trying to impress investors with their fancy AI and NLP technologies. But not him. Instead, he made it clear to investors that his app was solely meant to solve a business problem: helping companies better communicate with and market to their customers. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Investors who were initially interested in ManyChat immediately lost interest. But not for long. Even though Yan and his founding team initially had to bootstrap their product, investors eventually recognized the potential behind their vision and got on board. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Today, ManyChat has over one million Facebook pages connected to its platform in over 190 countries. The company also recently raised its Series A from Bessemer Venture Partners. Given that 2020 is the first time in history that the number of messaging app users will surpass the number of social media users, it’s clear that ManyChat is just getting started.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Listen to this interview to learn more about Yan’s thoughts on the future of messenger marketing, the global mobile industry, and the importance of mindset as an entrepreneur. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at support@foundr.com. </span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Key Takeaways</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why Yan, after years of dabbling in the consumer space, turned his eyes to B2B </span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">How ManyChat made timely use of Telegram Messenger’s API in 2015 and introduced the world of messenger marketing</span></li>