Nalin Senthamil

Storylane

Drive product-led growth (PLG) with Storylane platform so buyers can self-experience your product - and get quality lead in your pipeline.
 
At Storylane, we enable Marketing and Sales teams to show their product in an engaging and delightful way. And the best part is that it only takes on 15 mins to create one of these demos and add it to your site. 

Not only are we the most affordable demo company on the market, we also offer a free trial so don’t take my word for it! Signup today and create your first demo today completely free.

How to get started -
If you would like to create your own demo today, message me or hop on to the storylane.io website to schedule a demo or start a free trial.

Founder & CEO

Kinderlime (acquired by Procare)

Built first ever SaaS platform for early education market. (Acquired by Warburg/Procare).

Co-Founder / CTO

DAQRI

(Acquired by Snap Inc). DAQRI is an Augmented Reality company that is focused on improving how industrial enterprises work via Smart helmet, Glasses , SDK and Cloud ecosystem. DAQRI builds end-end entire ecosystem to make that possible (both HW/SW). 

Joined DAQRI as Technical Executive leader and grew the software engineering team to +100. Strategized and executed on its core products like Smart Helmet , Smart Glasses, Cube , SDK Platform and Web Tools to enable DAQRI reach its vision.

Founding Engineer / CTO

Amazon

• Led and developed "Amazon Flow" mobile app.

Senior Engineer / Tech Lead

PhaseSpace Inc

Senior Computer Vision Engineer

Sarnoff Corporation

Senior Software Engineer

Honeywell Technology Solutions, Inc.

Software Engineer

Hi, I'm Nalin, Founder & CEO of Storylane. 

Storylane lets marketing and sales teams build product demos in minutes. Today, we're serving 3000+ customers and growing rapidly.

In this era of remote sales, buyers are making quick decisions and Storylane empowers companies to drive growth through their product. 

I'm passionate about building delightful products through technology and wear multiple hats like that of a SaaS dreamer, exec, and advisor.

I flew from the US to India and back in 48 hours for my 25-year college reunion.
Here's why it was worth every single minute:

One day to travel.
One day there.
One day back.

Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani shaped everything about how I think today.

For a few reasons:

1. They didn't operate like typical Indian engineering colleges.

- Complete academic freedom.
- No forced attendance. 
- Today, they also allow you take a year gap to build a startup.

Unlike most colleges, they actually taught us to think.


2. Those 4 years built my strongest network.

We all figured out who we were together.
The friends I made there are still the people I call first.


3. Their mindset stuck with me

When I quit Amazon in 2012 to join an unfunded startup on a visa, that decision traced back to BITS.

The college taught us to take creative risks.
To bet on ourselves.
To build our own path.

That's not something you learn from a curriculum.

25 years later:

The room was full of people who took that freedom and ran with it.

- Executives at major companies.
- People who chose unconventional paths.
- Entrepreneurs who built businesses from scratch.

Because BITS gave us space to figure it out.

Whatever I've achieved at Storylane , it all connects back to those 4 years.

Some places educate you.
Others change how you think.

BITS Pilani did the latter.

Founder & CEO @Storylane - Build Killer Product Demos

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My sales guy just beat my all-time sales record at Storylane.
And I couldn't be happier about it.

Jackson Eldridge joined in 2024 and has already closed $2.5M in deals. That matches my own $2.5M after years of founder-led sales.

When he told me, I saw the pride:

"I know this space as well as you now. I'm the leading demo strategist."

I'm doing maybe 1-2 hours of sales calls daily now. 
Jackson does this full-time, crushing it.

Between us, we've driven half of Storylane's revenue to date.

As founders, there's a special moment when someone on your team surpasses what you built. It's not a threat – it's exactly what you want.

Time for me to pass the baton and watch him take our sales to heights I never could alone.

A founder friend called me yesterday to say he's shutting down his company.

But instead of burning through his remaining capital on desperate pivots, he's returning what's left to investors.

I was one of his angel investors. 

Most would expect me to be disappointed, but I was actually impressed.

The clarity to know when to stop is rare in founder circles. We idolize the "never give up" stories, but ignore an equally important skill:

Knowing when to let go.

His reasoning was crystal clear:

"I could burn the rest trying more pivots, but the team is exhausted. I'd rather return your capital now and start fresh later with renewed energy."

And I don't disagree.

Sometimes returning capital is the right move:
- When team motivation has fundamentally broken
- When market timing proves catastrophically wrong
- When pursuing it means destroying your mental health

We need to start acknowledging the wisdom of a graceful exit.

I want to take a moment to say happy Thanksgiving to the people who built Storylane.

Every win this year - every product improvement, every delighted customer, every milestone - came from this team's collective effort.

What I'm most grateful for isn't just the results.

It's the culture we've built together:

→ We support each other
→ We keep a Day 1 mindset
→ We challenge ideas, not people
→ We enjoy building and learning together
→ We wake up excited to solve real problems

This is the foundation that will carry us into 2026.

Proud of how far we have come.

IPOs are now impossible for most SaaS companies. Even at $100M ARR, the door is closed if you don't have these 2 things:

1. A clear AI strategy
2. Profitability

I was reading Jason M. Lemkin's analysis of the current SaaS landscape, and the numbers are sobering:

→ AI funding hit $377B annualized run rate this year
→ Traditional SaaS mega-rounds collapsed from 147 deals in 2021 to just 21 in 2025
→ Software exit multiples reset from 25x to 15x EBITDA
→ The IPO bar is now $400M+ ARR growing 30-50%+

This leaves hundreds of good $20-100M ARR companies stranded in no-man's land.

Traditional exit paths are gone.

Corporate M&A is focused exclusively on AI capabilities. 
PE firms remain selective, demanding AI integration and 40%+ EBITDA potential.

So what's the playbook if you're building a SaaS company today?

3 things I'm doing at Storylane:

- Developing a deep AI strategy (not just slapping "AI")
- Verticalizing our solutions more than going horizontal
- Staying profitable to control our destiny

You can cry about the IPO bar being too high or PE firms sitting on cash they won't deploy...

...or you can focus on what's in your control.

Markets change. Your job is to adapt.

When we hit $10M ARR at Storylane, I celebrated few mins. Then I'm obsessed with a single question: 

How do we get to $20M?

We got here by:

→ Deepening our product lines
→ Scaling our PLG + sales-led hybrid motion
→ Expanding our $3M marketing investment for new logos

But the playbook that got us to $10M won't get us to $20M.

One major shift we're already making: doubling down on customer expansion.

We made few changes:

→ Hired more CSM.
→ Changed our process & tools.
→ Updated commission structure for all CSM.
→ Hired Enterprise Sales for expansion.
→ Investing in customer marketing.

Oct was our biggest month from expansion ever.  

Something is working, but too early to say.

One thing is clear - Startups require constant evolution.

You have to look one year ahead constantly, identify gaps and keep placing new bets.

Visited my daughter’s school last week and was blown away. 
So many kids were already building businesses—and talking sales and marketing like it was second nature.

The entrepreneurial mindset starts early in US.

Kids here don't have to wait until their 30's to learn this stuff. 

My backstory is the opposite:

I only learned about entrepreneurship after moving to the US in 2010's.

Growing up in India, that path didn't exist. (until now)

Over there, you just worked for someone.

That was it.

My dad worked for the government. 
That's what I thought success looked like.

So I studied hard. 
Got good grades. 
Aimed to work for someone.

The concept of building your own business never even crossed my mind.

Moving to America taught me:

→ Capitalism gives you options
→ You can actually choose to 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥 instead of just work
→ Hard work matters, but direction matters more

Today, I'm building Storylane.

Meanwhile, my daughter is already learning how business works, preparing decks, talking marketing, thinking like a builder.

I'm glad they don't have to wait until 30's to learn this anymore.

Yesterday, a founder friend asked me: "To hit $20M next year, what's your top focus? Product? Sales? Brand?"

Me: Brand.

Friend: Really? You're an engineer. I thought you'd say product.

Me: That's exactly why I'm saying brand.

Friend: I don't follow.

Me: I can build products with deep tech. I've personally closed $2.5M in sales myself. Those things I know how to do.

Friend: So why not focus there?

Me: Because if I have a great product but no brand, I have no market to sell into.

Friend: But you can just do outbound or ads, right?

Me: Sure. But here's the thing - if I have brand but a bad product, I can rebuild the product in 3 months. If I have brand but weak sales, I can hire more. 

Friend: And if you have a strong product but no brand?

Me: You're screaming into the void. That's what happened at my previous company.

Friend: The one that raised $200M?

Me: Exactly. We built incredible tech. But nobody knew. We had the best product and nowhere to sell it.

Friend: So brand takes longer to build than everything else?

Me: Yep. Product, sales, customer success - I can fix those in a quarter. Brand takes time.

Friend: What would you do if you had to start from zero today?

Me: Associate your brand with founder authenticity from day one. LinkedIn content as core strategy, not an afterthought. Hire someone who thinks like you to run brand communications.

Friend: Why does it matter so much?

Me: Because there's no AI to build brand for you. It requires humans. Culture. Consistency. Everything else can be automated or hired around. Brand can't.

Friend: Makes sense.

Me: At Storylane , we spent 2+ years building brand before scaling hard. Now when we show up at events, people already know us. That's worth more than any feature.

--

Revenue scales with execution.

But execution needs an audience.

Brand gives you that audience.

A prospect switching from our competitor asked me for our 12-month product roadmap yesterday. I told them I'd be bullsh*tting if I showed them one.

Instead, I offered:

1. Exactly what we're building in the next 3-4 months
2. Our vision for where the product is heading
3. Our track record of shipping last 12 months

Anyone claiming they know precisely what features they'll ship 12 months from now is lying to you or themselves in the world of AI.

This prospect had already been burned by their previous vendor promising features that never showed up.

In the end...

They signed with us a week later.

Because what they wanted wasn’t a roadmap. They wanted confidence that we’ll:

- Solve problems quickly
- Adapt to changing conditions
- Be transparent about capabilities

Long roadmaps don't win customers. 

Execution will.

I was talking to founder who is starting his first company.  I have angel-strapped Storylane to $10M ARR, so he asked me - what's one thing I'd do differently if I start over?

My answer: I'd get a mentor early.

Looking back, a great mentor who has "been there, done that" can help:

→ Avoid mistakes that cost time and money
→ Figuring out what you are exceptional at
→ Keeping sane to yourself

Because,

→ You can’t see your own blind spots. 
→ And, founder can't have "don't know" as answer

You might be exceptional at something and not even realize it.
Or you might be burning energy on things that don’t move the needle.

A good mentor cuts through the noise and will callout BS fast. 

The challenge is finding the right one.

If I could go back, I'd find a mentor in year one of Storylane.

I used to think working hard was enough to succeed.
Unfortunately, it's not.

You need to work hard on the ONE thing you're exceptional at.

But most people don't know what that one thing is.

They spread their energy across everything - then burn out.

Here's my advice to find it:

1. Try to hang out with people smarter than you
2. Get good mentors who can tell you where you're exceptional
3. Double down on what you're naturally better at than others

Personal example:

I spent 4-5 years doing research and publishing papers.
Then, I spent 7-8 years building niche tech.
I was good at both. 

I could code, publish papers, solve technical problems or build products.

But nobody told me I was actually better at building businesses.

A mentor could have saved me years.

Once I figured it out, everything changed.

I stopped trying to be the best engineer and focused on being the best operator.

The lesson:

Work hard. But be selective about where.

You can't be exceptional at everything.

Find the one thing you can dominate and go all in.

Just shared my biggest PMF insight on The Founder Initiative (TFI) podcast.

After building Storylane to $10M ARR, I've learned that PMF shows up in customer behavior long before it shows in your metrics.

These emotional signals preceded every major growth phase we've had.

When prospects start treating your roadmap like it's a collaboration rather than a sales pitch, you're onto something special.

Had a great conversation with Adam O'Donnell about this and other lessons from our YC journey to today.

Full episode in comments.

Sales leaders want two things:

a) reps who send punchy, personalized outreach
b) a system that captures every signal without manual work

These things rarely coexist.

Until now.

Because Storylane is now integrated with Gong, which means:

👉 Reps can embed interactive demos from within the email composer
👉 Contact info auto-populates → personalization takes seconds, not minutes
👉 All demo engagement is tied directly to the Gong record
👉 Templates support demos too → every sequence gets an upgrade
👉 Lead capture happens automatically

Sellers shouldn’t have to juggle 5 tools just to send one personalized demo.

THIS is the closest thing we’ve seen to a fully connected, demo-led selling loop.

Read more about it here: https://lnkd.in/gBD-bsdA

Elon Musk's $1 trillion pay package seems insane. Everyone is talking about it and there is news every day on it still. 

But I think he's being underpaid.

In 10-15 years, that trillion dollars will look like a dime in the ocean.

He’s pushing transformation across multiple industries at once:

→ Robots in homes doing everyday tasks
→ Self-driving cars eliminating transportation costs
→ Energy from space powering the planet
→ Data centers in orbit running AI

The ripple effects alone are worth far more than a trillion.

He's not driven by money. 
He's driven by proving the impossible.
He picks a number everyone thinks is insane then he wants to beat it.

That's his addiction.

Ultimately, I believe the package sends a message: 

Take bold risks. Think bigger.

More founders will come out of this inspired to attempt the impossible.

And if everything he's building works, a trillion dollars will be nothing compared to the value created.

Cybersecurity products are complex.

That’s why leading cybersecurity companies trust Storylane to:
▶️ Educate customers effectively
▶️ Simplify products with interactive demos on a reliable, secure platform

Want to learn more?
Catch me and Jackson Eldridge at the Cybersecurity Marketing Society Con 2025 and see how we’re helping brands showcase their solutions with clarity and impact.

🗓️ December 7-10, 2025
📍 Austin, TX

See you there?

SE's know the struggle:
Endless prep, customizations, demos, follow-ups… repeat.

But AI can actually make it easier.

That’s why we’re giving away 3 scholarships for the AI for Solutions Engineering workshop with GTMshift, Presales Advisory Group, David Maloof, Jody Geiger, and James Kaikis

If you’re an SE (or have been an SE/SA/AE/CSM), this is your sign.
📅 Apply before Dec 7

Register here -> https://lnkd.in/gPH5j3UF

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