Ganesh Shankar, CEO and Co-Founding father of Responsive, is an experienced product manager with a background in leading product development and software implementations for Fortune 500 enterprises. During his time in product management, he observed inefficiencies within the Request for Proposal (RFP) process—formal documents organizations use to solicit bids from vendors, often requiring extensive, detailed responses. Managing RFPs traditionally involves multiple stakeholders and repetitive tasks, making the method time-consuming and complicated.
Founded in 2015 as RFPIO, Responsive was created to streamline RFP management through more efficient software solutions. The corporate introduced an automatic approach to reinforce collaboration, reduce manual effort, and improve efficiency. Over time, its technology expanded to support other complex information requests, including Requests for Information (RFIs), Due Diligence Questionnaires (DDQs), and security questionnaires.
Today, as Responsive, the corporate provides solutions for strategic response management, helping organizations speed up growth, mitigate risk, and optimize their proposal and data request processes.
What inspired you to begin Responsive, and the way did you discover the gap out there for response management software?
My co-founders and I founded Responsive in 2015 after facing our own struggles with the RFP response process on the software company we were working for on the time. Although not central to our job functions, we dedicated considerable time assisting the sales team with requests for proposals (RFPs), often feeling underappreciated despite our vital role in securing deals. Frustrated with the dearth of technology to make the RFP process more efficient, we decided to construct a greater solution. Fast forward nine years, and we have grown to just about 500 employees, serve over 2,000 customers—including 25 Fortune 100 corporations—and support nearly 400,000 users worldwide.
How did your background in product management and your previous roles influence the creation of Responsive?
As a product manager, I used to be always pulled by the Sales team into the RFP response process, spending almost a 3rd of my time supporting sales as an alternative of specializing in my core product management responsibilities. My two co-founders experienced an identical issue of their technology and implementation roles. We recognized this was a widespread problem with no existing technology solution, so we leveraged our almost 50 years of combined experience to create Responsive. We saw a chance to fundamentally transform how organizations share information, starting with managing and responding to complex proposal requests.
Responsive has evolved significantly since its founding in 2015. How do you maintain the balance between staying true to your original vision and adapting to market changes?
First, we’re meticulous about finding and nurturing talent that embodies our passion – essentially cloning our founding spirit across the organization. As we have scaled, it’s develop into critical to rent managers and team members who can authentically represent our core cultural values and commitment.
At the identical time, we remain laser-focused on customer feedback. We document each piece of input, no matter its size, recognizing that these insights create patterns that help us navigate product development, market positioning, and any uncertainty within the industry. Our approach is not about acting on every suggestion, but making a comprehensive understanding of emerging trends across a wide range of sources.
We also push ourselves to think beyond our immediate industry and to remain interested in adjoining spaces. Whether in healthcare, technology, or other sectors, we continually find inspiration for innovation. This outside-in perspective allows us to repeatedly raise the bar, inspiring ideas from unexpected places and keeping our product dynamic and forward-thinking.
What metrics or success indicators are most significant to you when evaluating the platform’s impact on customers?
When evaluating Responsive’s impact, our primary metric is how we drive customer revenue. We concentrate on two key success indicators: top-line revenue generation and operational efficiency. On the efficiency front, we aim to significantly reduce RFP response time – for a lot of, we reduce it by 40%. This efficiency enables our customers to pursue more opportunities, ultimately accelerating their revenue generation potential.
How does Responsive leverage AI and machine learning to offer a competitive edge within the response management software market?
We leverage AI and machine learning to streamline response management in three key ways. First, our generative AI creates comprehensive proposal drafts in minutes, saving effort and time. Second, our Ask solution provides easy access to vetted organizational knowledge, enabling faster, more accurate responses. Third, our Profile Center helps InfoSec teams quickly find and manage security content.
With over $600 billion in proposals managed through the Responsive platform and 4 million Q&A pairs processed, our AI delivers intelligent recommendations and deep insights into response patterns. By automating complex tasks while keeping humans on top of things, we help organizations grow revenue, reduce risk, and respond more efficiently.
What differentiates Responsive’s platform from other solutions within the industry, particularly when it comes to AI capabilities and integrations?
Since 2015, AI has been on the core of Responsive, powering a platform trusted by over 2,000 global customers. Our solution supports a big selection of RFx use cases, enabling seamless collaboration, workflow automation, content management, and project management across teams and stakeholders.
With key AI capabilities—like smart recommendations, an AI assistant, grammar checks, language translation, and built-in prompts—teams can deliver high-quality RFPs quickly and accurately.
Responsive also offers unmatched native integrations with leading apps, including CRM, cloud storage, productivity tools, and sales enablement. Our customer value programs include APMP-certified consultants, Responsive Academy courses, and a vibrant community of 1,500+ customers sharing insights and best practices.
Are you able to share insights into the event process behind Responsive’s core features, resembling the AI suggestion engine and automatic RFP responses?
Responsive AI is built on the muse of accurate, up-to-date content, which is critical to the effectiveness of our AI suggestion engine and automatic RFP responses. AI alone cannot resolve conflicting or incomplete data, so we’ve prioritized tools like hierarchical tags and robust content management to assist users organize and maintain their information. By combining generative AI with this reliable data, our platform empowers teams to generate fast, high-quality responses while preserving credibility. AI serves as an assistive tool, with human oversight ensuring accuracy and authenticity, while features just like the Ask product enable seamless access to trusted knowledge for tackling complex projects.
How have advancements in cloud computing and digitization influenced the way in which organizations approach RFPs and strategic response management?
Advancements in cloud computing have enabled greater efficiency, collaboration, and scalability. Cloud-based platforms allow teams to centralize content, streamline workflows, and collaborate in real time, no matter location. This ensures faster turnaround times and more accurate, consistent responses.
Digitization has also enhanced how organizations manage and access their data, making it easier to leverage AI-powered tools like suggestion engines and automatic responses. With these advancements, corporations can focus more on strategy and personalization, responding to RFPs with greater speed and precision while driving higher outcomes.
Responsive has been instrumental in helping corporations like Microsoft and GEODIS streamline their RFP processes. Are you able to share a particular success story that highlights the impact of your platform?
Responsive has played a key role in supporting Microsoft’s sales staff by managing and curating 20,000 pieces of proposal content through its Proposal Resource Library, powered by Responsive AI. This technology enabled Microsoft’s proposal team to contribute $10.4 billion in revenue last fiscal yr. Moreover, by implementing Responsive, Microsoft saved its sellers 93,000 hours—corresponding to over $17 million—that might be redirected toward fostering stronger customer relationships.
As one other example of Responsive providing measurable impact, our customer Netsmart significantly improved their response time and efficiency by implementing Responsive’s AI capabilities. They achieved a 10X faster response time, increased proposal submissions by 67%, and saw a 540% growth in user adoption. Key features resembling AI Assistant, Requirements Evaluation, and Auto Respond played crucial roles in these improvements. The combination with Salesforce and the establishment of a centralized Content Library further streamlined their processes, leading to a 93% go-forward rate for RFPs and a 43% reduction in outdated content. Overall, Netsmart’s use of Responsive’s AI-driven platform led to substantial time savings, enhanced content accuracy, and increased productivity across their proposal management operations.
JAGGAER, one other Responsive customer, achieved a double-digit win-rate increase and 15X ROI by utilizing Responsive’s AI for content moderation, response creation, and Requirements Evaluation, which improved decision-making and efficiency. User adoption tripled, and the platform streamlined collaboration and content management across multiple teams.
Where do you see the response management industry heading in the subsequent five years, and the way is Responsive positioned to guide on this space?
In the subsequent five years, I see the response management industry being transformed by AI agents, with a concentrate on keeping humans within the loop. While we anticipate around 80 million jobs being replaced, we’ll concurrently see 180 million recent jobs created—a net positive for our industry.
Responsive is uniquely positioned to guide this transformation. We have processed over $600 billion in proposals and built a database of just about 4 million Q&A pairs. Our massive dataset allows us to grasp complex patterns and develop AI solutions that transcend easy automation.
Our approach is to embrace AI’s potential, finding opportunities for positive outcomes relatively than fearing disruption. Firms with robust market intelligence, comprehensive data, and proven usage will emerge as leaders, and Responsive is on the forefront of that wave. The secret is not only implementing AI, but doing so strategically with wealthy, contextual data that permits meaningful insights and efficiency.
