NEW DELHI: Launched in 2009, Truecaller today is one of the most popular smartphone applications for its features of caller-identification, call-blocking, and flash-messaging. With over 170 million monthly active users in India, the app, over the past few years, has also become a preferred choice for many advertisers to reach their audience. However, it was made possible by the constant innovation and grit that the team at Truecaller has shown – today it’s sitting pretty at over 70 per cent of its revenues being driven by advertising. One person who contributed immensely to this feat was its VP- global sales (south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, MENA) Tejinder Gill, who announced his departure from the company last month. Currently serving his notice period, Gill is more than grateful for the opportunities that Truecaller presented to him on a professional level and in a recent interview with Indiantelevision.com, he shared all about his time at the company.
“I joined Truecaller in 2016. At that time, it was already the third-largest mobile platform in India (after Google and Facebook) with over 100 million users. It was an exciting opportunity to build a business ground-up with a broader canvas,” shared Gill.
After spending six years at LinkedIn, he was keen to be part of a growing organisation which had the potential of making it big in the coming years. It was Truecaller’s clear focus on product and people that resonated very strongly with him. “Looking back, I can say it was a natural fit. The past 4.5 years at Truecaller have been simply remarkable and I feel proud of being part of this amazing company,” he added.
During his stint at the Swedish-owned caller ID app, Gill innovated immensely to curate custom advertising solutions for clients, establishing Truecaller as one of the top three mobile publishers in India. He also launched Truecaller brand solutions across global markets in 2016, allowing brands to create custom messaging while users search for phone numbers or in notifications after receiving a phone call. The feature of roadblock, that allowed a singular brand to buy multiple ads through the day, helped many brands run a successful launch, including smartphone manufacturer OnePlus.
For Gill, his journey at Truecaller had several high moments and professional milestones. Among his biggest achievements, he listed: “scaling India operations across three cities with multiple functional expertise, achieving profitability, scaling 2 billion+ impressions in a single day globally, establishing Truecaller as one of the top three mobile publishers in India, launching Truecaller brand solutions across global markets and signing up more than 500+ advertisers.”
These advertisers include the likes of OnePlus, Myntra, Patanjali, Kalyan, Vivo, and Ford, just to name a few.
Another beautiful thing that he will carry on from his days at Truecaller are the relationships he built with the people there. “Being an early member of team India, it helped me to build close relationships with every single team member of India and Stockholm. I got great support from both our founders, Alan and Nami, who empowered me to build the advertising business. I will be taking away some great friends for life from here and I am thankful to them for making the entire company successful. Even now, Truecaller is a lean and close-knit team of 250 motivated and capable individuals.”
Opening up about his decision to move on from the company, Gill said that he wanted to challenge himself and push learning boundaries to explore newer technologies in the consumer technology space while still keeping digital marketing as the core.
“I will surely let you know of my future plans very soon. Right now, I am still focusing on my work here at Truecaller till mid-February. I will always be grateful to Truecaller for giving me some of the best learnings of my career which I will leverage in my next play,” he signed off.
