OneMob

Sethi Hillier spent eight years at Salesforce building and scaling the App Exchange from concept to over 2,000 applications—essentially creating an "app store" for enterprise software before Apple's iPhone store existed. But by 2014, he felt the pull to build something of his own. At 37, he decided it was now or never: "I got to get this in before the big four oh hits."

The insight was deceptively simple. Sethi observed that consumers constantly use video to communicate on Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram, but the moment professionals step into the office, they default to plain email and cold calling. Everyone has amazing cameras in their pockets, yet sales teams aren't using them. "Why can't we just take this selfie movement and make it so I can easily record a video myself, send it to you and know if you watched it?" That question became OneMob.

OneMob launched in 2014 with a remarkably lean MVP: just an iPhone app. Pull it out of your pocket, record, click send. But Sethi made one critical decision that separated OneMob from other video tools—he integrated Salesforce from day one. "As soon as you start talking to a business, they're automatically thinking about all these other tools, but I have one system to manage my customers. Are you going to integrate to that?" Being able to answer yes immediately opened doors.

Over the first six months to four years, the product evolved significantly. The team added an Android app, a Chrome extension for screen recording, and a full web analytics platform. Why? Because real-world usage revealed that sales reps don't always have their phones with them—sometimes they're at their desks, sometimes in the field. Each addition was validated by actual customer needs.

Sethi went through the Alchemist accelerator, which provided initial capital and helped set valuation terms via a SAFE note. Early investors like Tim Draper and San Jose Angels came in at these terms. Salesforce Ventures later invested (unusually for them at the seed stage), but only after OneMob demonstrated real customer traction and revenue.

Growth came primarily through word of mouth. "Most of the selling has been through just word of mouth," Sethi explained. The team sponsored specific events—Salesforce partner events, sports industry conferences—that yielded quality leads. And because customers were using OneMob with their clients, those clients would see the product in action and inquire themselves, creating organic, product-driven growth.

The data showed OneMob was solving a real problem. Sales reps reported: "People aren't taking my calls. They're not responding to my emails. But if I can record a quick video and know if you're watching it, I can follow up right away." For sellers, it was a no-brainer.

By 2018 (roughly four years post-launch), OneMob had ~100 paying customers (logos) and approximately 10,000 total seats across the customer base, ranging from SMBs (5-10 reps) to Fortune 500 companies. The company was generating roughly $200k/month in revenue ($20 average per user per month), having doubled year-over-year consistently since inception. Enterprise and mid-market accounts showed strong unit economics: enterprise accounts were worth $1M+ in lifetime value, mid-market accounts $50k-$100k. Critically, there was virtually zero churn among mid-market and enterprise customers—and negative gross revenue churn overall, with existing accounts expanding ~25% annually.

SMB customers were the weak point. They self-served, sometimes churned after a few months when a particular sales cycle ended, then returned later. But this wasn't a major concern because SMB revenue was modest; the real value came from enterprise expansion.

By the time of this interview, OneMob had raised $1.9M total. The core team was about 10 full-time employees (plus ~5 contractors), mostly based in San Francisco. Sethi and his co-founder had been doing most of the selling personally, though they'd just hired their first dedicated full-time sales rep. The company was still very founder-driven—Sethi managed the business while also selling.

The strategy was clear: start with a department (25-50 sales reps), prove value and stickiness, then expand across the organization to account managers, customer success teams, and support reps. These enterprise customers had thousands of employees, so the land-and-expand playbook offered massive runway. Sethi remained confident about OneMob's place in the market and saw far more to build—when asked if he'd sell to Salesforce for $10M, he demurred, suggesting there was "still a lot more" to do.