Assembled

How Assembled Achieved 80% YOY Growth with Workforce Management Solutions

March 9th, 2025

Founded By

John Wang

Monthly Revenue

$57.7K

Founders

Employees

118 (est.)

Profitable

Yes

Year Started

2018

Customer

B2B

Founded By
John Wang: Monthly Revenue
$57.7K: Founders
2

Employees
118 (est.): Profitable
Yes: Year Started
2018

Customer
B2B

Who is John Wang?

John Wang co-founded Assembled in 2018 after gaining experience as a Y Combinator founder in 2014, and he was inspired by his time working at Stripe.

What problem does Assembled solve?

Assembled helps businesses efficiently manage customer support teams, reducing waiting times and frustration for customers by ensuring the right agents are available at the right times.

How did John come up with the idea for Assembled?

The idea for Assembled began when the founders witnessed firsthand the struggles faced by support teams during their time at rapidly growing companies like Stripe. They noticed that as businesses expanded, the tools available for managing customer support were inadequate, leading to inefficiencies and dissatisfaction. Inspired by the potential to enhance customer experience and the evident gap in workforce management solutions, they decided to build a platform that helps support teams become more proactive and efficient.

Before diving in, the founders spent significant time engaging and collaborating with support teams to understand their daily challenges. Through shadowing sessions and hands-on support roles, they realized the intricate, multitasking nature of a support agent's job. This deep-dive approach revealed the burden of manual processes and the absence of a systematic way to manage growing teams, which substantiated the need for a comprehensive solution.

Throughout the development phase, the team prioritized user feedback, conducting numerous interviews and incorporating insights into their product design. They faced challenges, such as initial assumptions from prototypes, but course-corrected by continuously interacting with potential users and tweaking their approach. Key lessons included the importance of validating problems with real users and refining solutions to meet evolving demands, ultimately shaping a product rooted in real-world needs and destined to empower support teams.

How did John Wang build the initial version of Assembled?

Assembled's initial product development involved meticulous research and interaction with potential users to shape their workforce management platform. Founders embraced a "startup within a startup" approach, creating an intensive development environment that mirrored Y Combinator's accelerator model, focusing heavily on writing code and engaging with customer support agents to understand their workflows. They utilized tools like automated forecasting and scheduling systems to optimize support team management. Early prototypes were tested through shadowing sessions with support teams and support takeovers, helping the team iterate based on real-world feedback. It took approximately three months to build the first version, a period characterized by rapid pivots and intensive collaboration in what they dubbed "the dungeon," which allowed for rapid problem-solving and direction changes. The process was challenging, involving multiple existential crises, where hypotheses were continually tested and refined, ensuring the product was truly solving the users' needs.

What were the initial startup costs for Assembled?

Funding: Assembled raised $19.7 million in funding.

What was the growth strategy for Assembled and how did they scale?

Networking and Customer Engagement

Assembled leveraged a hands-on approach by actively engaging with their users, which helped them grow significantly. They implemented strategies like extensive user shadowing sessions and support takeovers, allowing them to understand customer workflows intimately. This direct interaction provided valuable insights into customer needs and helped build stronger relationships, ensuring the features they developed were directly aligned with user requirements.

Why it worked: Building direct relationships with customers created a feedback loop that helped Assembled continually enhance its product to solve real-world problems effectively. The hands-on approach ensured the product evolved based on genuine customer pain points, fostering customer trust and loyalty.

Product Evolution and Direct Customer Feedback

The company emphasized talking to users and iterating based on real-world feedback. They realized after initial setbacks that they needed to validate their ideas directly with users, which led to a more focused approach in their product development. Pivoting based on user feedback allowed them to create solutions with actual demand, like their AI-driven tools, which resulted in onboarding their first users through this method.

Why it worked: By directly involving customers in the development process, Assembled ensured their product effectively addressed user needs, leading to better customer retention and word-of-mouth promotions which fueled their growth.

Strategic Partnerships

Assembled collaborated with major players like Canva, Robinhood, and Stripe to expand their reach and credibility in the industry. These partnerships provided access to a broader customer base and validated their product’s effectiveness in solving customer service challenges for large enterprises.

Why it worked: Partnering with established companies not only expanded Assembled's visibility but also reinforced their credibility in workforce management solutions. This attracted more users who recognized the value in a solution trusted by industry leaders, aiding in rapid user acquisition and adoption.

SEO and Content Strategy

Though not explicitly detailed in the available information, industry-standard growth by similar SaaS companies often includes developing strong content strategies to boost SEO. Such strategies help attract organic traffic by delivering valuable content that addresses potential customer queries or needs, albeit this specific method is inferred as potentially used by Assembled.

Why it worked: Effective SEO and content strategies position a company as a thought leader or solution-provider in its field. By attracting highly-targeted traffic, businesses can convert visitors into customers, thereby increasing sales and retention rates.

What's the pricing strategy for Assembled?

Assembled utilizes a tiered pricing strategy based on workforce size, featuring customized plans for enterprises with scalable costs that address specific customer support needs.

What were the biggest lessons learned from building Assembled?

Talk to Users: Assembled learned the importance of engaging directly with their users, which helped them understand user needs and refine their product offerings. By shadowing support agents and taking over support duties temporarily, they gained invaluable insights that they couldn't obtain otherwise.
Embrace Team Dynamics: The formation of a dedicated team for new product development fostered a startup-like environment within the company. By keeping the team in one room and encouraging open communication, they could quickly pivot and adapt to changes, enhancing both team morale and project outcomes.
Navigate Existential Crises: Assembled frequently faced challenges that tested their assumptions and strategies. By embracing these moments and using them as opportunities for introspection and adaptation, they were able to validate their product and refine their focus based on user feedback.
Cultural Values Enhance Growth: The cultural mantra "get on the plane" emphasizes the value of being present with customers to deeply understand and address their pain points. This approach facilitated strong customer relationships and drove continual product improvement.
Iterate and Adapt Quickly: The iterative process of creating new products through a “startup within a startup” approach allowed Assembled to test ideas rapidly, making necessary pivots to meet user demands effectively and avoid costly missteps.

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