The Story of Intercom 💬

Today’s intro is a bit different. In the last 2 weeks, we asked you if the content was too short or too long, and funny enough, the results in both cases were exactly 50/50😅

So what I want to try next is to provide value to both sides:

1. Keep The Summary with only the key details at the top.

2. And whoever wants to dive deeper and more details can keep reading.

I hope this way both sides will find value in each story. As always, if you would like to see something else or just differently, just let me know by answering directly to this email.

How do you build a company that redefines customer relationships in the digital age, growing it from a coffee shop conversation to a global enterprise with over 700 employees?

By turning human connection into a business model.

This is exactly what Eoghan McCabe, Des Traynor, David Barrett, and Ciaran Lee did when they built Intercom.

So, without further ado, let’s get into it. This is the Story of Intercom 💬✨

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👶 Founders: Intercom was founded by Eoghan McCabe, Des Traynor, David Barrett, and Ciaran Lee, who noticed their error-tracking app, Exceptional, lacked personal customer connections.

🇮🇪 Inspiration: Inspired in a Dublin coffee shop, they realized how important personal customer relationships IRL are and envisioned a similar messaging tool for the online world.

🎓 Backgrounds: McCabe and Traynor, with strong product design backgrounds, saw online businesses becoming impersonal and complex.

📞 Initial Steps: Around 2010, they added a chat feature to Exceptional, which drew significant interest, leading to the birth of Intercom.

💡 Birth of Intercom: In 2011, after selling Exceptional to Rackspace, they launched Intercom on Hacker News, gaining early traction.

💬 Early Traction: They onboarded customers one by one over Skype and used blog articles to attract more users, improving their product with every feedback.

💵 Funding: Their innovative approach quickly attracted investors like GV, Index Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins while receiving a total of $240M in funding with a valuation of $1.3B.

⌛ Product Development: Intercom's Business Messenger revolutionized customer communication, setting it apart from other CRM tools.

🚀 Growth: Shipping features like surveys, bots, and a knowledge base, Intercom became even more useful to their customers, driving more growth.

💬 Leadership Changes: After Eoghan McCabe faced harassment allegations and transitioned to chairman, Karen Peacock became CEO in 2020; McCabe returned as CEO in 2022.

📈 Success: Intercom has grown into a comprehensive CRM platform with over 700 employees, 25,000 customers and makes more than $250M ARR.

In short, Intercom revolutionized customer relationships by bringing human connection to online business.

Intercom’s success is built on a simple idea: businesses thrive when they treat customers like people, not numbers. By creating tools that enable meaningful communication, Intercom helps companies build stronger relationships, drive customer acquisition, and reduce churn.

Next time you visit your local coffee shop, think about how a simple conversation was the inspiration to build Intercom…

Want more details? Keep reading👇

It’s 2010. In a small coffee shop in Dublin, Ireland, four friends — Eoghan McCabe, Des Traynor, David Barrett, and Ciaran Lee — are enjoying their lattes. Des, looking around, observes how the owner grows his business through personal conversations and relationships with his customers, building loyalty and creating super-fans one conversation at a time.

At the time, they were running an error-tracking app called Exceptional, which had thousands of customers. But despite their success, they realized they had only met a handful of their users. Unlike the coffee shop owner, they lacked a personal connection with their customers.

This observation planted a seed in their minds. They started to ask themselves: Could this kind of human connection be replicated online?

Around 2010, the internet was growing rapidly, but customer interactions online were often impersonal and transactional. Businesses relied on spammy emails and automated, cookie-cutter responses that left customers feeling unimportant.

But also within the same company, there were multiple ways employees were communicating with their customers which simply wasn’t scalable and easy to do❌

This realization led to the birth of Intercom.

Initially, they built a small feature into Exceptional that allowed them to chat with their customers directly through the app. It was a simple admin tool with a floating logo and speech bubble (similar to how it looks today).

Customers noticed this and started asking about the tool, expressing more interest in it than in Exceptional itself.

Realizing the potential, they decided to build this feature into a standalone product.

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In 2011, after selling Exceptional to Rackspace, Intercom was officially founded and they launched it on Hacker News which drove initial traction.👇

Their first product, Business Messenger, provided a simple yet powerful way for businesses to communicate with their customers in real-time.

They launched in private beta in July 2010, and by inserting a small Javascript snippet, businesses could add Intercom to their websites. Early adopters loved it, and word quickly spread.

The initial success was clear when their first pitch deck outlined the vast opportunity to revolutionize customer communication. This vision resonated, and their product quickly gained traction.

Des Traynor, Intercom’s Chief Strategy Officer, played a key role in their early marketing efforts. He wrote around 90 blog articles filled with startup advice, subtly promoting Intercom.

This content-first approach helped them build a loyal community of users and advocates.

In the beginning, Intercom’s team onboarded customers one by one over Skype. They developed their sign-up flow based on feedback from these early users. This hands-on approach allowed them to fine-tune their product and build strong relationships with their customers.

By 2013, they had grown significantly and continued to expand their product offerings. They introduced features like Surveys, Product Tours, Bots, and a Customer Data Platform, each aimed at enhancing customer interaction and experience.

Despite their success, Intercom also faced some challenges.

In 2019, CEO Eoghan McCabe was accused of sexual harassment. They investigated and cleared him of any wrongdoing. After that in 2020, McCabe stepped down as CEO, with Karen Peacock, the former COO, taking over.

However, in 2022, McCabe returned as CEO, emphasizing that his prior departure and the allegations were unrelated.

Intercom continued to innovate and grow. They maintained their commitment to making internet business personal, expanding their team and product suite to better serve their +25,000 customers.

Thank you for taking the time to read the Story of Intercom. From a coffee shop to billions 🚀

My goal each week is to improve every story by at least 1% each time so every feedback is immensely valuable.

So again, if you have any thoughts on what you’d like to see more or less of, please reply to this email and let me know🙏 I read and reply to everything!

— Mehmet Karakus