Close

Close is the sales CRM that Steli Efti bootstrapped from San Francisco in 2013, initially as an internal tool for his startup studio's portfolio companies. Steli became famous in the startup community for his aggressive, practical sales philosophy — "just pick up the phone" — and the CRM reflects that: it is the only CRM where making and receiving calls, sending emails, and setting follow-up reminders happen in a single timeline view with zero context switching. Close grew to $17M+ ARR serving 500+ customers (mostly 5-100 person sales teams at B2B SaaS startups) by being the CRM that salespeople actually want to use. The built-in VoIP calling (click any phone number to dial), email sequences with open tracking, and smart views (saved filter combinations that surface the hottest leads) made it a productivity multiplier. Steli's podcast, blog, and free sales scripts attracted exactly the right audience: founders and sales reps who needed to close deals faster.