It quickly gained 10,000 users including 1000 paying customers, Campbell says.

But it wasn’t enough to make ends meet and it soon ran up against the “visual voicemail” introduced by phone makers and carriers that did the same thing.

“We were quickly running out of money and it was, it was getting more and more difficult to grow the business,” Campbell said.

His solution was to go and talk to the paying customer. Many of them were real estate agents, recruiters, small business owners, tradies, and lawyers.

“Basically everywhere we went, we were rejected,” Campbell says.

But by talking to so many customers – particularly law practice managers and others in legal firms – in close to 100 interviews, the VXT team learned a lot about what was needed.

Campbell particularly spent time with a clutch of law firms, including Saunders & Co, a firm with around 100 staff that became an anchor customer for VXT’s new, law-focused product, VXT Phone. Recruitment firms and accounting shops are other targets.

Today, VXT has more than 600 customers, with some 90% outside of NZ. The United States is the firm’s second-largest and fastest-growing market, having seen 400% growth in the past year, Campbell says.

“Our customers make more than 50 million calls in VXT every month. About 30% of those calls are recorded. And many of our users will have those call recordings transcribed and summarised using AI.”

The founder has just returned to Christchurch after two years living across the Tasman. He says his plan is to spend five months of the year in NZ, five months in Australia and two months further afield.

Last year, he did 43 flights, but he says the object wasn’t sales, simply talking to customers and watching them work.

His approach reminds the Herald of Education Perfect founder Craig Smith, the University of Otago graduate who obsessively tweaked his software after closely observing users (and who would later see his firm sold to US private equity giant KKR in a $455m deal).

After watching a customer in real life, “I might, like, move a button two pixels to the right or make it larger. All of those small optimisations are just as important as the foundational changes because when you add 1000 of them together VXT becomes incredibly easy to use and valuable.”

VXT has also been backed by local VCs Global From Day One (GD1) and Phase One Ventures.

The March capital raise is a pre-Series A. Campbell says there’s now lots of runway, with no pressing need for a Series A. VXT could be profitable at any time if it chose, but prefers to push for growth, he says.

From its early days, it knows how to run lean, he says.

Head of marketing Sophie Svenson recently recalled on LinkedIn how, after joining as a commission-only contractor, “in my first two months at VXT, I was only paid $130”.

A bit more is coming through the door now.

VXT’s monthly recurring revenue is currently at a $3m annualised run-rate and growing 10% per month, Campbell says.

There are 20 staff today, which will grow to 26 in a couple of months, he says.

More features are planned, with heavy dollops of AI, including a virtual receptionist. The aim is to become a broader part of every law firm’s tech stack.

“At our current growth rate, we expect to approach $100m in annual recurring revenue within three years or so,” Campbell adds.

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald‘s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.