Dan Bedford is the CEO of Connexion and Founding father of Clio Dan Bedford is the CEO of Connexion and Founding father of Clio, a messaging platform that unifies WhatsApp, Instagram, and Fb into one automated workspace.
This week’s Visionary Voices sits down with Dan Bedford, founding father of Clio, the messaging aggregation platform that desires to interchange your chatbot with one thing clients really need to use.
Corporations are spending billions on AI chatbots. Clients hate them. That is the stress Clio is constructed round.
“Companies are doing it for effectivity for themselves and never effectivity for the purchasers,” Bedford instructed IBT. “As a result of evidently the purchasers do not need to see that.”
Bedford has seen the horror tales firsthand. He factors to at least one incident the place a buyer acquired a supply firm’s AI chatbot to jot down a poem about how horrible the corporate was at delivering packages on time. The screenshot went viral.
“My default once I find yourself speaking with a chatbot for buyer assist is to right away ask if I can converse to a human agent,” he stated. “Most of the time they only regurgitate the web site’s FAQs again at you.”
Born From a Actual Drawback
Clio wasn’t born in a pitch deck. It got here from Bedford’s mom’s enterprise, which ran government-funded training programs in London. Fb advertisements generated 1000’s of leads, however just one in ten really certified for enrollment. Salespeople have been burning 90% of their time on calls that went nowhere.
Bedford constructed a WhatsApp-based workflow that automated the qualification course of and pre-filled enrollment kinds from chat knowledge. No human interplay was wanted till a lead was really able to convert. The outcome: 80% discount in admin prices.
“Folks simply like to have these forwards and backwards conversations as a substitute of filling in a lead type, getting an e mail in three days, and doing all that tedious stuff,” he stated.
The AI Bubble Warning
Bedford is blunt in regards to the broader AI panorama. He compares the present funding frenzy to the dot-com bubble and warns founders constructing on prime of third-party APIs.
“In case your product is solely constructed on prime of OpenAI’s API, then your complete enterprise is reliant on that firm. In the event that they shut their API, your product disappears. In the event that they exit of enterprise, your product disappears.”
His recommendation to younger entrepreneurs: “Strive to not get caught in these hype cycles. In some unspecified time in the future, the cash runs out. The crap will likely be weeded out.”
On AI changing jobs, Bedford sees transformation slightly than extinction. “I nonetheless do not see an excessive amount of of AI with the ability to simply do issues with out oversight. The job turns into inventive route.”
Clio launched in January 2026 and is at present onboarding customers by way of natural outreach, networking occasions, and a accomplice program providing as much as 50% recurring fee on referrals.
About Dan Bedford
IBTimes US
Dan Bedford is the CEO of Connexion and Founding father of Clio. Beforehand at Google, he has a background in software program growth and the crypto trade. Clio unifies WhatsApp, Instagram, and Fb Messenger into a single automated workspace for companies. Primarily based in the UK.
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