DashAPI Is Rewriting CRM with AI (No More Setup Screens)

If you’ve ever tried to set up a CRM from scratch, you know the pain: clunky interfaces, messy data mapping, and hours lost configuring tools just to get something useful. What if instead of wrestling with your CRM, you could just tell it what you want — and it figured the rest out?

That’s the vision behind Stéphane Paquet's startup DashAPI: a next-gen CRM built around conversation, not configuration.

With AI at its core, DashAPI lets founders, marketers, and sales teams simply ask for what they need — and the system handles the setup, data integration, and response in real time. No workflows. No playbooks. Just results.

Key Takeaways

• DashAPI is building a “service-as-a-software” CRM — not a SaaS tool
• The product eliminates traditional CRM setup and config entirely
• Users can talk to their data directly — no digging through pages or fields
• DashAPI is ideal for marketers, sales leaders, and even CEOs
• Their key insight came from realizing the data layer, not UI, was the true bottleneck

CRMs Are Broken — But AI Can Fix Them

Stéphane didn’t start by trying to replace Salesforce. In fact, DashAPI began as a decision intelligence platform. But after talking to users — and reflecting on their own past integrations with Salesforce and HubSpot — it became clear that the root problem wasn’t the decision-making.

It was the data.

“CRMs today are either too simple to be useful, or too complex to be usable. And most of them rely on you to plug in five other tools just to work.”

So DashAPI took a bold step: rebuild the CRM layer entirely. Build something that connects to your tools, pulls in clean data, and lets you ask for what you want — without touching a dropdown menu or hunting for a field.

It’s like moving from Yahoo to Google in the early 2000s.

What “Service-as-a-Software” Really Means

Forget “software-as-a-service.” Stéphane calls DashAPI a service-as-a-software — a platform that doesn’t just sit there waiting for you to configure it, but one that actively helps you get things done.

“It’s not a tool. It’s a sidekick. You ask questions. It gives answers. It just works.”

That could mean:

• A CEO asking for last quarter’s pipeline changes — and getting a clean summary in seconds
• A marketer checking which campaigns converted best — without pulling a single report
• A salesperson getting reminders, contact insights, and next steps without data entry

This shift is more than UI. It’s about changing what we expect a CRM to do — and who can use it.

Their Sweet Spot: The Mid-Market Moment

One of the smartest strategic bets DashAPI is making? Targeting the moment when companies outgrow HubSpot but aren’t ready for Salesforce.

That’s the moment where: • Data gets messy
• Reporting starts to break
• Leaders need better answers — fast
• And no one wants to spend 6 months building out a Salesforce org

“Most CRMs are bloated or barebones. We’re building the one that just works out of the box — and actually makes sense.”

DashAPI plugs into the tools you already use, pulls in real-time insights, and keeps your CRM usable without a team of admins.

Finding the Problem Took Work

One of the most relatable parts of Stéphane’s story? He didn’t find the product right away. DashAPI pivoted several times. And the hardest part wasn’t technology — it was identifying the actual problem worth solving.

“The question we had to answer was: are we building a product, or are we building a feature?”

That clarity came from deep user interviews and repeated moments of customer frustration — especially among marketing and revenue leaders trying to answer simple questions and getting stuck.

And once they saw the CRM as the bottleneck, not the dashboard — everything clicked.

What’s Next for DashAPI

The team is now focused on:

• Launching with early-stage and mid-sized SaaS companies
• Building deeper integrations with tools like Segment and Mixpanel
• Expanding the conversational layer for CEOs and execs to access data instantly

Stéphane’s ask for the community? Feedback.

“If you’ve ever fought with your CRM or felt like your data wasn’t giving you what you need — try DashAPI. We want to hear from you.”

Book a Free AI Assessment if you’re rethinking your CRM stack or looking for smarter ways to connect your tools, automate reporting, and streamline internal ops. We’ll help you identify where AI can simplify complexity and deliver a strategic roadmap to make your systems actually work for you.