Founded in 2017 by Slovenian entrepreneurs Leon Panjtar and Tilen Tomakić, SaleSqueze is on a mission to transform how small and medium-sized businesses sell complex products. Their Visual CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) platform automates the lead-to-order process, combining seamless user experience with AI-powered visualization and sales intelligence.
From RVs and tiny homes to industrial machinery and medical devices, SaleSqueze is aiming to enable companies to ditch tedious manual processes and turn online inquiries into interactive, qualified quotes—no coding required. With results like 3x more leads, 40% higher sales, and a 90% cut in admin work within just a few months, the impact is clear.
Last year, the startup raised $1.5 million in a seed funding round led by Underline Ventures, with support from Robin Capital, Fortech Investments, Super-Angels, Klub 20, Xenia Muntean, Christoph Zoeller, and Björn W. Schäfer. The investment is now helping SaleSqueze accelerate its market entry and boost product development.
In this interview with IT Logs, co-founder Leon Panjtar shares how SaleSqueze is helping businesses stay agile, modernize their sales workflows, and deliver the kind of buying experience today’s customers expect.
IT Logs: What’s the idea behind SaleSqueze, and what are the main challenges you’re aiming to solve?
Leon Panjtar: SaleSqueze started around five years ago—back in 2017, I believe. At the time, I was running a custom development business, and digital transformation in manufacturing was a hot topic. Everyone was talking about Industry 4.0, but in Slovenia, it didn’t seem like much was actually happening. The government began issuing public calls to support digital initiatives, so we launched a custom development agency focused on helping industrial companies with their digital transformation efforts.
We started working on projects with some of the larger players in the local market—integrating systems, building KPI dashboards, and so on. But one issue kept coming up: data quality. Sure, ERP systems had structured data, but there was always a lot of messy, inconsistent data floating around them. And the root cause often turned out to be the sales department.
Sales teams were relying heavily on manual input, juggling Excel sheets, calculation tools, emails, and occasionally some custom-built apps. This made the whole process error-prone and time-consuming. One company even asked us directly if we could help clean their data or create a system to improve it. That got us thinking.
We started exploring the space and realized that CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) systems could be a way to solve this problem—by making the configuration and pricing process algorithmic and tailored to the product itself. So we took on a few custom CPQ projects, and after five or six of them, we began seeing patterns. The products, and the way they were described, had a lot of similarities.
That’s when we built the first version of what would become SaleSqueze. At the time, it was more of a development framework to help us create these configurator experiences faster. Then in 2021, things really took off. COVID accelerated demand for self-service tools, remote collaboration, and better customer experiences—especially in B2B, where systems were usually quite poor. We spun off the product into its own company, assembled a dedicated team, and that’s how SaleSqueze was born.
Today, we’re a team of 20 people. We raised a seed round last year, and we focus on working with manufacturing companies—especially those with large dealer or distribution networks. These companies need a smooth, self-service sales experience, and that’s exactly what we help provide.
Integrating AI-powered visualization with sales intelligence—how exactly does that improve the sales process?
LP: One of the main challenges we faced early on was the visual aspect of the sales process. We help companies sell very complex products, and even in B2B relationships, buying decisions tend to take a long time. Customers often struggle to make decisions because they see images, drawings, or sketches, but they can’t fully visualize the product in real life. That’s why visualization is such an important part of the experience we help create.
To address this, we developed our own engine that integrates AI, essentially acting as a co-pilot to help create visual objects connected to configuration parameters. This is one of the key areas where we currently use AI.
Another critical issue, especially for companies with large distribution networks, is the lack of visibility into their data. Companies with thousands of partners globally often don’t have a clear understanding of what’s happening across their network, making it difficult to plan supply chains, resources, and production operations effectively. These companies typically rely on historical data, which can be limiting. Once a digital system is in place, we can track and capture data directly in the system. For instance, we know how many quotes each dealer has issued, the historical conversion rates, and we can even estimate the number of orders the company will receive. This data allows companies to better plan their operations, which is crucial because manufacturing companies are often more focused on production than sales.
Many sales teams are struggling with using too many tools. Does SaleSqueze aim to replace these tools, or is it something entirely new?
LP: SaleSqueze is an all-in-one solution. In short, we offer a digital content editor that allows anyone—regardless of technical skills—to create configuration experiences. It’s a visual drag-and-drop studio, similar to how you’d build a PowerPoint presentation. It’s simple to use, so no programming knowledge is required.
Once the experience is created, it can easily be shared across all channels. For example, you can set up a customer-facing channel on your website where end customers can interact with the product, configure it to their needs, and submit an inquiry. The system processes the inquiry and automatically generates a quote.
Next, there’s the dealer network. You can equip the configurator with dealer-specific pricing and terms, which can be shared with dealers. They can use the same tool to automate and streamline their sales processes, while manufacturers receive all the data.
Finally, for sales teams, the configurator can be used with a different price list to streamline the quoting process. In essence, SaleSqueze covers everything on the sales front end, allowing it to replace many tools currently used, such as email, CRM, ERP, Excel, and phone communication. Most of these processes are automated and digitized, making the whole system much more efficient.
You’ve received feedback indicating three times more leads, 40% more sales—how has this feedback influenced your development process?
LP: First of all, we started in our local market, and the learnings were fascinating. Companies that adopted this digital visual experience immediately stood out from their competitors. Typically, for a highly complex product, it could take two to three weeks to get a price quote. However, companies using a digital, visual experience could provide that information within seconds.
The second major advantage is that customers could actually see what they were buying. They could immediately visualize their idea on the screen, which is a powerful moment in the decision-making process.
The last key point is that most businesses operate during regular working hours (9 to 5), but many purchases are made in the afternoon or on weekends. By offering a digital tool, you essentially have a sales representative available 24/7—one who knows everything about your product and can instantly provide a picture and a price. This creates a highly engaging experience for customers.
We saw success in our local market, and that led to our expansion globally. We are now operating in 15 markets, which presented new challenges. Running a system in just one market is different from managing it across 15. We needed to implement multilingual and multi-currency support, and scale up our infrastructure to ensure fast loading times in different regions around the world.
The last thing we’re currently focused on is the next generation of our AI. We’re working on creating a true AI sales agent. The goal is to address the resource shortage companies face when hiring technical salespeople. By offering an AI sales employee, we aim to help companies overcome this challenge. We expect to launch this new feature by the end of the year.
AI agents—what role do you think they will play in sales? Do you believe this will become a significant trend in the industry?
LP: I believe AI will play a crucial role in the future of sales. From my experience, it’s very challenging to find salespeople who are the perfect fit for the product, the market, and the company. It’s not that most salespeople are poor performers—some are, but many simply aren’t the right fit for what you’re doing. Additionally, the pool of people capable of handling such roles is shrinking.
That’s why AI will be increasingly important. We need to set up sales systems that automate as much of the interaction as possible, only involving human salespeople when truly necessary. For B2C customers, in particular, they are often more than capable of handling 90% of the sales process themselves, as long as we provide them with the right self-service tools. The key is to let them handle most of it and then bring in a sales representative only when it’s time to close the deal. This is the trend we’re hoping to drive.
What other trends do you see emerging in the industry, aside from AI and automation?
LP: One of the most significant trends happening right now, and it’s becoming a bit concerning, is the decline of traditional distribution networks. As the margins on products that have become commodities continue to shrink, there’s less and less room for distributors and dealers. As a result, many companies are eliminating the distribution layer and starting to work directly with dealers.
Looking ahead, I expect that within the next five years, many brands that traditionally sold B2B through large dealership networks will establish subsidiaries in key markets and begin selling directly to consumers. This shift is similar to what Tesla did, achieving high profitability and immense success by eliminating the distribution network.
We’re already seeing this trend in companies that choose to work with us. For many of them, the primary goal is to build a system that enables them to sell directly to the end customer. This is one of the major trends I foresee for the near future.
