Tell us about yourselves and how you met your co-founders
I come from a remote frontier region of Pakistan, belonging to the Pashtun ethnic group, where I developed a passion for technology at an early age. At 13, I taught myself C and web programming, and within a few years, I was freelancing in building websites and applications for clients worldwide. While studying Computer Science, I competed in and won several programming competitions and interned in Information Security at the Center for Advanced Research in Engineering (CARE). A scholarship for an internship in Hong Kong proved to be a turning point in my career, leading me to an opportunity that would shape my future.
In Hong Kong, I met my future co-founder, Gerardo Salandra, a former Google and IBM employee. We quickly bonded over a shared vision to revolutionize business communication through AI-driven messaging solutions. At the time, businesses were struggling to engage customers effectively across instant messaging platforms, and we saw an opportunity to bridge this gap. By the end of my internship, we decided to turn this idea into reality, launching Rocketbots in 2017. The company was later rebranded to **respond.io,** evolving from a chatbot provider into a full-fledged customer conversation platform used by thousands of businesses globally. As CTO, I continue to drive innovation and technology, helping companies optimize and scale their customer engagement strategies.
How did you come up with the idea for respond.io and what inspired you to launch the company?
The idea for respond.io was born from a clear gap in customer communication efficiency. At the time, messaging apps were ubiquitous for personal communication and businesses were looking engage with customers on the channels they naturally spend the most time on. Businesses began adopting multiple social media and messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram and so on, but there was no centralized way to manage all these conversations. As a result, they struggled with slow response times or missed conversations in crowded app inboxes, leading to lost sales opportunities and low customer satisfaction.
We had a solution. Customers wanted instant responses, but businesses weren’t equipped to handle real-time messaging across different channels. That’s when we decided to build an omnichannel platform that would unify customer conversations, automate workflows and help businesses create impactful interactions at scale.
What is your mission with respond.io?
Our mission is simple. We believe that every customer interaction—whether it starts as a sales inquiry, a support request, or casual engagement over calls, chat or email—can be transformed into a business opportunity. Our goal is to help businesses capture, convert, and retain customers through seamless, AI-powered messaging
How are you unique in the marketplace?
What sets respond.io apart is our ability to centralize customer conversations across all popular channels while offering AI-powered automation and integrations with existing business CRMs or ERPs like Salesforce, HubSpot and Shopify.
Unlike traditional ticketing or email-based systems, respond.io is built for real-time, omnichannel engagement. Businesses don’t just manage conversations on our platform—they automate, optimize, and monetize them with AI-driven workflows that increase conversion rates and reduce response times dramatically.
Our commitment to delivering cutting-edge solutions also puts us at the forefront of the industry. We’re an official WhatsApp Business Solutions Provider (WhatsApp BSP) and were among the first in the world to launch the TikTok Business Messaging integration, enabling brands to connect with customers on emerging platforms.
We are also introducing voice calling capabilities, allowing businesses to seamlessly switch between chat and calls within the same interface. With powerful automation, AI-driven insights, and a flexible, scalable approach, we enable businesses to turn conversations into business results more effectively and at a wider scale than ever before.
How do you help SMEs?
We understand that SMEs don’t always have large marketing, sales and customer support teams available, so we empower them to scale their customer communication efficiently. Here’s how we support SMEs:
- Lead Generation & Sales Growth – Businesses can capture leads easily on social or messaging apps, and nurture them and close deals faster with automation. This frees human agents to focus on critical cases or high value customers.
- Cost-Effective Customer Engagement – Our Monthly Active Contacts pricing model ensures businesses only pay for the conversations they have according to their plan. This allow SMEs access to powerful solutions and level the playing field against larger competitors.
- Scalability Without Complexity – SMEs can start small and expand their usage as they grow, without the need for complicated setups or expensive enterprise software.
Do you have a successful case study you can share with us?
One of our most impactful success stories comes from Dalilk Academy (officially known as Innov821 DMCC). This EdTech provider in Saudi Arabia was struggling with student inquiries getting lost in multiple inboxes.
Respond.io helped it revolutionize its student enrollment process by slashing response time, providing seamless communication between students and advisors, and reducing administrative burdens, setting a new benchmark for digital-first education providers.
A combination of targeted WhatsApp broadcasts, a centralized inbox for real-time responses and automated workflows increased Dalilk Academy’s student conversion rate to 73.2%, or 730,448 student sign-ups in seven months, effectively doubling its previous record.
What has been your biggest success since launching?
Since launching, we’ve achieved several major milestones:
- We’ve grown to serve over 10,000 brands across 86 countries, including top companies like British Airways, Toyota, Decathlon, Roche, and Klook.
- We became an official WhatsApp Business Solution Provider (BSP) in 2023, allowing us to offer even deeper integration for businesses using WhatsApp for customer engagement.
- We’ve received multiple industry awards, including recognition as one of the Fastest Growing Companies in the SME100 Awards.
- And now, we are among the first in the world to launch the TikTok Business Messaging channel, allowing businesses to offer stellar customer experiences on the popular app
But our biggest success isn’t just about numbers – it’s seeing how businesses transform their communication strategies and thrive using respond.io.
Tell us about your partnership with TikTok.
We’re incredibly excited about this partnership because it represents the next generation of social commerce. Our new TikTok Business Messaging integration, which also supports TikTok Messaging Ads, is a game-changer for businesses looking to convert TikTok engagement into real-time conversations and sales.
With this integration, businesses can respond instantly to TikTok inquiries, nurture leads, and drive sales—all without leaving the respond.io platform. This is a game-changer for businesses looking to capitalize on TikTok’s engaged audience without increasing marketing spend.
How do you see the marketplace/industry developing over the next few years?
The business communication landscape is undergoing a major transformation. Customers now expect real-time, personalized interactions, which means businesses must adopt omnichannel messaging strategies to stay competitive.
Over the next few years, I anticipate AI-driven automation playing a larger role in sales, marketing and customer service. With advancements in generative AI, chatbots and virtual assistants will become more intelligent, context-aware, and capable of handling complex conversations without human intervention.
I am also expecting social and conversational commerce to grow, as platforms like TikTok, WhatsApp and Instagram expand their shopping and messaging features. Businesses will need to integrate these platforms into their customer engagement strategies to keep up with changing consumer behavior. At the same time, growing concerns around data privacy and AI regulations will require companies to ensure compliance while maintaining seamless customer experiences. As businesses adapt, the demand for centralized, AI-powered messaging solutions like respond.io will only increase.
What are your growth goals over the next 5 years?
Our goal over the next five years is to continue expanding respond.io as a leading platform for customer communication. We plan to grow our presence in key markets, especially in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, where businesses rapidly adopt new digital messaging solutions.
A major focus will be on enhancing our AI capabilities, improving automation, sentiment analysis, and predictive analytics to make customer interactions smoother and more efficient. Additionally, we are introducing voice calling capabilities, allowing businesses to switch between messaging and calls within the same platform.
We also want to make respond.io more adaptable for larger businesses by improving CRM and sales system integrations. Strengthening our partnerships—like our recent TikTok Business Messaging integration—will be key to expanding our features and reach. At the same time, we’ll continue adding deeper integrations with platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Shopify.
Our focus is on refining our platform to ensure businesses can meet customers on important channels, whatever they may be, and see real results in record time
How can readers find out more about respond.io?
Readers can visit our official website at respond.io for detailed information on our product offerings, pricing plans, and feature updates. We also regularly post insights and tips on our blog, as well as on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram, all of which are great resources for anyone looking to optimize their customer communication strategies.
