Jan 9, 2025

Tribble is an AI-native enterprise dedicated to optimizing go-to-market operations. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Tribble co-founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Ray Shipley to learn more about the company. Ray Shipley’s Background What is Ray Shipley’s background? Shipley said: “First and foremost, my career has been set within the sales and emerging technologies industries. I’ve both led and been a part of sales teams that have been rooted in enterprise technology. But the constant has always been surrounding emerging technologies.” “For over ten years, I was part of various teams at Salesforce. Before co-founding Tribble, I led a global organization in building technology partner ecosystems for emerging Salesforce products like Commerce Cloud, Data Cloud, Marketing Cloud Intelligence, and Tableau.” “I gained a first-hand understanding of how innovation can solve real business problems. With the emergence of generative AI, I’ve had an opportunity to experiment and harness its potential – especially for my colleagues in sales and marketing roles.” Formation Of Tribble How did the idea for the company come together? Shipley shared: “The answer to this question has so many layers to it. Simply put, my co-founder Sunil and I came from the world of Salesforce. Our experiences and the opportunities our roles afforded us helped us understand that the work of GTM teams was inefficient. We knew how AI could upend the hours spent on various workflows for us and our peers.” “We also understood that the proliferation of generative AI would cause a fundamental shift in how enterprises build and distribute software. When we launched Tribble, we knew we did not want to build another app that users would hate using and companies would be forced to purchase. In other words, we didn’t want to feed into the ongoing SaaS fatigue and introduce technology that doesn’t solve specific problems. We wanted a solution that would be purpose-built to adapt to the modern enterprise and create efficiencies in the process.” Favorite Memory What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Shipley reflected: “We recently announced there were over 250,000 agent interactions  for our customers on Tribble. This number has grown at a rapid pace and while this punctuates the validity of our work, I’m more excited to see our team’s hard work translate into tangible results and business value for our customers. It’s incredibly motivating, and literally watching Tribble’s impact increase validates the work.” Core Products What are the company’s core products and features? Shipley explained: “The entirety of Tribble is built around the Tribble Agent, our AI Agent that enables users to streamline, automate, and improve how GTM teams work.” “The Tribble Agent provides a new toolset for enterprises to redefine their business processes, from RFP automation to facilitating sales enablement in ways we didn’t think were possible until recently.” “This is incredibly important for our customers as the ability to respond quickly and accurately to RFPs and questionnaires can be a significant differentiator for enterprises and sales teams seeking a competitive advantage. At the same time, enterprises now face the challenge of transitioning from human-led to AI-driven operations, requiring new strategies, tools, and mindsets.” “All of the innovations we release, such as Tribblytics (the ability for Tribble to analyze its own performance and the knowledge of an organization), are all in service of creating a more intelligent digital assistant and teammate to serve companies’ needs.” Challenges Faced What challenges have Shipley and the team faced in building the company? Shipley acknowledged: “As generative AI continues to dominate the business news cycle, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between genuine innovation and overblown hype. The challenges right now are more philosophical than anything tangible. We need to continue changing the hearts and minds of folks in the enterprise space that AI today needs to have real-world capabilities and specific application – but oftentimes, many solutions fall short of expectations and valuations.” “To be blunt, Tribble is very specifically out to create a more efficient experience for sales teams by offering an AI agent that proactively addresses RFPs and enablement. The easiest way to push the trough of disillusionment to the path of enlightenment will be rooted in others taking similarly specific, focused approaches.” Customer Success Stories When asking Shipley about customer success stories, he highlighted: “A perfect example of standout success is courtesy of our work with Ironclad. Facing a deluge of inbound demand and significant challenges with its existing RFP tools, Ironclad initially tapped Tribble in late 2023, shortly after Tribble’s inception, to explore improvements to workflow and automation. The collaboration proved successful within mere weeks, leading to substantial gains in workflow efficiency.” “This work goes beyond our efforts to improve the RFP response experience. After using Tribble to help maximize sales efficiencies, Ironclad developed a blueprint for incorporating Tribble into all departments, including engineering and customer service, via integration with Slack. Using the Tribble Agent, Ironclad utilized the proprietary technology in a novel capacity to enhance its overall operational efficiency, doubling the organization’s productivity.” “While our impact will remain on the RFP and Infosecs efficiency, the example we uncovered with Ironclad validates larger opportunities that we’re excited to tackle in the years ahead.” Differentiation From The Competition What differentiates the company from its competition? Shipley concluded: “Unlike legacy software that treats work as something to be project-managed and tracked, Tribble’s agent operates within the tools users already utilize, such as internet browsers, Slack, and Teams actually to get work done on behalf of humans.” “Users can upload any unstructured document, and Tribble intelligently retrieves the relevant information to answer RFPs. By analyzing, understanding, and automating responses on the users’ behalf, Tribble creates new efficiencies and becomes an integral part of an enterprise’s sales team.”