Scaling deskless workforce HR with customer-centric lead gen | Karthik Balachander from Agendrix

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Hey everybody. Welcome back to today’s episode of Pathmonk Presents. Today we are joined by Karthik, the Lead Generation Director at Agendrix. Karthik, welcome to the show.

Karthik Balachander: Thanks for having me, Rick. It’s lovely to be here.

Rick: It’s lovely to have you. Let’s start with the basics — maybe you can give us a glimpse into the company you work for at Agendrix. What’s the big idea behind it, and how would you describe what you do to someone who’s never heard about it?

Karthik Balachander: Sure thing. The simplest way to describe it is Agendrix is an HR software for workforce management. We make life easier for small business owners and managers in predominantly deskless jobs when it comes to scheduling shifts, moving shifts around, tracking attendance and time, building timesheets, preparing for payroll, helping communicate with team members without relying on SMS or Facebook Messenger… managing HR records, document signatures — basically everything you would expect an HR tool to do without a fancy price tag.

Because we are all about helping small and medium businesses — think restaurants, hotels, janitorial staff, senior care homes. That’s why I said “deskless” earlier. What we do really well is provide a very intuitive user interface on mobile apps and desktop to make it seamless so managers can focus on what they do best: delighting customers and clients, rather than paperwork or making sure things are running smoothly. The software takes care of that for you.

Rick: Okay, that’s great. Now you mentioned deskless industries — hospitality and others. Is that where your product really shines? Is there a specific problem you help these people solve? Maybe a specific experience they can expect when they work with you? Because obviously these folks are always on the go, always busy.

Karthik Balachander: That’s right. The main problem we solve is that unlike most businesses, we don’t have heavy concentration in one single industry. About 14 different industries represent a significant chunk for us — hospitality, restaurants, retail stores, pharmacies, clinics, even construction squads working on remote job sites.

And although we’re a mobile-friendly SaaS tool, it can even be used offline. You can clock in and out using a landline phone number — just by placing a phone call and punching in a code. So the software is built from the ground up to be usable in almost all contexts.

The key is helping employees and employers trust each other through a reliable medium where they know their responsibilities — when someone needs to check in, whether tasks were completed, where they need to be. At the same time, managers have all the employee info in one place: profile, onboarding details, emergency contacts, timesheets. They can message each other. Employees can recognize their peers’ good work. Managers can give “high fives” — that’s literally a feature in our product.

For those of us in white-collar jobs, these features feel normal. But for deskless jobs, they’ve been an afterthought, which makes it harder for managers to motivate teams. Retaining staff is one of the biggest challenges — they spend time hiring and training only to lose people due to lack of direction. Agendrix helps managers keep teams motivated, aligned, and protected.

Rick: Wow. I like how it’s focused on maintaining that connection between manager and worker — making it more human. I love how you’re making that happen.

Karthik Balachander: And if I can add one more thing — many managers who first use Agendrix are blown away by how easy it is to build and share schedules. That’s the part where they face the biggest challenge.

For example, many still use Excel or similar tools to create a schedule. Building the first version is easy — there are thousands of templates. The hard part comes after: updating schedules. You have V1, V1-final, V2, V3-final… making sure everyone has the right version is a huge hurdle. That’s where we started as a product.

All the other features were layered on later. We’ve now been in business 10 years, and every feature is based on conversations with managers who adopted us. We’re very focused on the right customers with the right problems.

Rick: Makes a lot of sense. Now I want to touch on the lead gen side — your bread and butter. How do most people discover you? Any go-to channels for bringing in new customers across all those industries?

Karthik Balachander: Like with any successful business, word of mouth remains our single biggest channel — especially in French-speaking Canada. We’re headquartered in Sherbrooke, Quebec. That presence gives us strong credibility.

The next two most important channels are:

1. Organic traffic — we rely heavily on helpful content we’ve curated over 10 years: blog articles, Excel templates, calculators, free tools, and of course a lot of SEO work.

2. Paid — which is significant but varies by market.

We’re huge in Quebec, making waves in the rest of Canada, and also very present in France and French-speaking Europe thanks to the volume of English and French content we’ve produced.

Rick: Got it. Now out of that traffic, where do people land? And as Pathmonk is a website tool, how much of a role does your website play? Anything you’d love to improve or that really shines today?

Karthik Balachander: The website is critical for Agendrix. We pride ourselves on three pillars:

1. Intuitive user experience — employees and managers want self-service. Our website must reflect that.

2. Design — we invest heavily in aesthetics. Good design builds trust, and you need that in a crowded market with dozens of competitors.

3. Product — the website is the ramp into the product, and we maintain visual and functional consistency between both.

We are transparent — one of our values is literally “No BS.” We’re upfront about who we are, what we offer, and what we don’t. Campaigns land on dedicated landing pages. Organic traffic hits content or feature pages.

What I’d love to improve is attribution. Measurement remains a huge challenge. Privacy laws, multi-device behavior… and with deskless jobs, it’s even harder. A lot of restaurants have TVs playing ads randomly — maybe our ads — but impossible to track who sees them.

As for strengths, the website does a great job educating users, offering interactive demos, and getting them to try the product. Our pitch is simple: try it. No credit card. 21-day free trial.

Rick: Love that. Now Karthik, let’s switch gears and go into our rapid fire segment. Quick questions, concise answers. Ready?

Karthik Balachander: Sounds good. Let’s do it.

Rick: Do you prefer watching, reading, or listening?

Karthik Balachander: Listening.

Rick: What’s the latest piece of content you listened to — podcast, audiobook, anything — and were there any gems?

Karthik Balachander: Lenny’s podcast. The most recent episode I listened to was about how ChatGPT and OpenAI are engineering a change in consumer behavior and product discovery — and how companies that adopt these platforms early will gain the most. It’s a risky proposition but compelling, especially given how AI is affecting SEO, AEO, and GO.

Rick: If you had a magic wand — maybe AI — and could fix one frustrating thing in your marketing life with tech, what would it be?

Karthik Balachander: Multi-channel and cross-device attribution — but done in a way that respects privacy. Something that gives thoughtful, timely suggestions while complying with laws and expectations.

Rick: What’s one repetitive task you’d love to put on autopilot forever?

Karthik Balachander: Reporting and diagnosis. It’s hard to identify solutions when 75% of your analytical time goes into gathering data and spotting issues, and only 25% into fixing them.

Rick: And last one — if you could give your past self a pep talk at the start of your marketing journey, what advice would you give?

Karthik Balachander: I was trained as an engineer and thought in black-and-white. Marketing taught me it’s not binary. My advice: be more adaptable and agile. Focus on consumer behavior — that’s the one truth. Adapt to it, and you’ll always succeed.

Rick: Perfect. Karthik, I want to thank you for being with us today. If someone forgets everything, what is one thing they should remember about you and the work you’re doing at Agendrix?

Karthik Balachander: The three keys to success — for a business or a career — are: your product (or your personal output), your ability to persuade and bring people along, and your ability to distribute your message. Build those three and you’ll thrive.

Rick: Amazing. If someone wants to try out Agendrix or get in touch with you, where can they go?

Karthik Balachander: The easiest way is agendrix.com — available in English and French. Services are available worldwide. And if you’d like to follow me, I’m on LinkedIn at “karthikbc.”

Rick: Perfect. Thank you again, Karthik. It was a great conversation.

Karthik Balachander: My pleasure. See you next time.

Rick: Thank you. Have a wonderful day.

Karthik Balachander: You too.

Rick: Bye everyone.

Karthik: Bye.