How 6 times pivot startup is helping users to create clickable demos CanvasFlip is onboarding untapped user base on their platform by providing a seamless way to create app prototypes.
By Samiksha Jain •
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Are you planning to build your own website or an app? Are you using power point presentation, excel sheet and many other inefficient means to create clickable demos of your app ideas? It must be more confusing to decide about what features or design your app should have.
To make your entrepreneurial ride easy and to reduce the hassles, 26-year-old duo Vipul Mishra and Manish Jha founded CanvasFlip, a cloud-based prototyping platform that allows users to create clickable demos of their app or website.
Inception
CanvasFlip was started as an online HTML5 animation platform. After a series of pivotal experiments, it finally emerged as a prototyping and usability testing solution.
"We started CanvasFlip as a HTML5 animation platform. During our development phase, one of our customers suggested that we have better potential at addressing challenges in existing prototyping solutions. When we further spoke to our other customers, they loved the idea and then we forayed in rapid app prototyping space. After pivoting for 6 times, we finally emerged as a Prototyping and Usability Testing Suite," said Vipul Mishra, CEO, CanvasFlip.
How it works?
The Bengaluru-based startup allows product managers, UX teams and non-tech entrepreneurs to validate their idea and user experience without writing a single line of code. Users can create a prototype (clickable demo of apps) from design and share it with other stakeholders to get actionable analytics on these prototypes.
Explaining further, Mishra said, "By using CanvasFlip, designers can upload app designs to create a clickable demo of their app called "Prototypes'. Prototypes created on CanvasFlip can be shared with the team over a weblink (or in CanvasFlip native app) to generate actionable analytics on design usability. Users also get 30 days of evaluation period after which there are two licences: Creator license - to create prototype which costs $25 per user per month and Validator license which is needed to review and comment over prototypes costing $5 per user per month (available on invite ONLY)."
Validating flow and user experience at the design stage further helps companies to save significant amount of time and development iterations.
Funding
CanvasFlip has recently secured $1.2 million in seed round from Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners. The firm plans to utilize these funds to enhance product capabilities and enable growth practices.
"It's great to have the support of one of the world's largest venture funds. Even before this investment, the Bessemer team has been helping us to evolve the product and business model. We (CanvasFlip Team & Investors) share the vision of CanvasFlip solving major pain points in the UX space," said Mishra.
Traction
Based on monthly subscriptions revenue model, CanvasFlip in the last 23 months has grown over 140 enterprise customer base consisting of some very successful enterprises like PayTm, MakeMyTrip, Dine Out (TimesCity), Tech Mahindra and many others. Within 40 days of release in public domain, over 2000 UI/UX experts and product managers across the globe have registered on CanvasFlip.
"We are observing 22 percent week-on-week growth in registrations. Over 46 percent of our non-enterprise users are from non-India market; mostly from US, Singapore, Israel and UK," Mishra informed.
Growth and Expansion Plans
Incubated under TLabs' incubator program, the startup is targeting 100,000 users on their platform with 35 percent paid customers and an annual revenue of $600k by March, 2016. They have further started exploring the international market and very soon a front office in Silicon Valley will be opened.
Moreover, they are actively reaching out to popular design platforms like Dribbble, Behance, Pinterest and many others to provide UI/UX experts an opportunity to showcase their work in interactive fashion.
"We have been speaking with major user experience forums including UX Now, UX India to showcase CanvasFlip in their events," said Mishra.
A piece of advice for the mushrooming entrepreneur
"Focus on pain-points of your customers rather than the quality of your application. In B2B space, sit with your customer and observe product usage. In B2C, build basic version and see user response on your app. Data never lies. Use these observations to enhance your product and business model," Mishra opined.
