The Neon Show How AI Will Finally Deliver the Promise SaaS Made | Samay Kohli: From Robots to Digital Workers
Samay Kohli spent 12 years at GreyOrange, scaling it to over $100 million in revenue and a $3 billion valuation at its peak, making it one of the world’s largest warehouse robotics companies. Two years ago, he started again with Budy, this time in the US senior care industry.
In this industry, decisions are emotional, sales cycles can run for years, and multiple stakeholders are involved. While the market sits at the intersection of real estate, healthcare, and hospitality, most sales still depend on manual follow-ups and scattered tools.
Budy builds digital workers for sales teams: AI teammates that handle follow-ups, scheduling, and lead management across CRMs, calendars, and inboxes. Instead of adding another layer of software, Budy went zero UI-UX and focused on enabling sales teams in an industry with 99% inbound leads to manage their cold leads better.
Today, Samay joins Siddhartha (Partner at Neon Fund, and a proud investor in Budy) and shares his journey from building robots to building digital teammates for a very non-traditional industry.
00:00 – Trailer
01:00 – What Budy is building for senior care
05:15 – Real Estate × Healthcare × Hospitality
06:25 – Zero UI UX technology
10:09 – AI teammates not assistants
12:03 – How sales teams operated before Budy
12:51 – A ninety nine percent inbound industry
13:45 – The real cost of senior care homes
15:35 – Can a CRM alone solve this
17:55 – Direct benefits of a digital worker
20:49 – Two founder archetypes
22:06 – Can lights out operations become real
24:49 – What Samay underestimated about the market
25:58 – The largest players in the industry
29:07 – Treat your customer’s company like your own
30:52 – Entrepreneurship as a profession
35:36 – Unlearnings as a second time founder
37:30 – What digital workers actually are
39:47 – The original promise of SaaS
42:04 – The next decade of digital workers
45:25 – Digital workers that read best selling books
47:26 – Will Claude build CRMs
49:38 – Business etiquette across the world
55:18 – How a second time founder chooses investors
01:01:00 – Why every team member should track the P and L
01:02:14 – How Samay’s view on growth evolved
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Check us out on:
Website: https://neon.fund/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/
Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww
Connect with Siddhartha on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/
Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7
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This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice.