Swapan Rajdev

Co-Founder at Haptik

Insights & ideas

Rajdev traces Haptik's core thesis to a single, durable insight formed in 2011-2012: interactions between users and brands felt clunky across the entire lifecycle, from discovery to purchase to post-sales support to brand recall, and this problem could be paired with the rising trend of digital, chat-based communication seen in early WhatsApp and BlackBerry Messenger adoption [1]. He argues that humans are inherently conversational, and that marrying this behavioral trend with the customer experience problem was the founding vision that persisted even as the company's business model changed dramatically [1].

He also reflects on the company's willingness to pivot when a strategy failed, noting that an initial B2B pitch flopped because businesses simply didn t understand what Haptik was proposing, which forced a shift to a B2C personal assistant app and eventually back to B2B SaaS [1]. A recurring theme is the importance of design and setting user expectations: he recalls how leaving the assistant's scope undefined led users to ask irrelevant questions, illustrating his belief that good design must clearly bound what a conversational product is meant to do [1].

Experience

1. 
   Co-Founder

   HaptikApr 2024 to Present
2. 
   Co-Founder & CTO

   HaptikJul 2013 to Mar 2024
3. Co-Founder

   InteraktApr 2024 to Present
4. Co-Founder and CTO

   InteraktJan 2020 to Mar 2024
5. Angel Investor

   Angel InvestorDec 2019 to Present
6. Founder

   Zing! AppsAug 2010 to Aug 2020
7. Software Engineer

   Radius Intelligence, Inc.Apr 2011 to Jul 2013
8. Consultant

   AccentureAug 2008 to Apr 2011

Education

• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign · Computer Engineering2004 - 2008
• FAIPS1998 - 2004

Media & appearances

• Building conversational AI - Swapan Rajdev (CTO & Co-founder, Haptik)YouTube talk · Mar 16, 2022

  Swapan Rajdev discusses Haptik's founding story starting in 2011-2012, explaining how he and co-founder Akrit identified a problem with customer experience interactions and saw the trend of digital conversations rising through apps like WhatsApp. He describes the company's journey from initially pitching to businesses, pivoting to a B2C consumer app, and eventually transitioning to a B2B SaaS company, including surviving near-death situations and being acquired by Reliance Jio in 2019.

• Techie Tuesday: Swapan Rajdev, HaptikYourStory Techie Tuesday (interview) · Oct 22, 2019

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