Return Signals

Return Signals

AI customer support that proactively engages high-value users

Winter 2026ActiveB2BGenerative AICustomer SuccessCustomer SupportSMSSan Francisco, CA, USA
Company
https://www.returnsignals.com
AI customer support that proactively engages high-value users. By using LLM’s to engage customers in an authentic way before they reach out to customer support we minimize support tickets, build relationships and deliver upsells. Because we are helpful and human-like, our SMS outbound has 4-10x higher response rate than Emotive/Attentive/Postscript or any other product on the market.

Verdict

Medium Signal
Market Opportunity
The ICP is DTC/e-commerce brands on Shopify, a large and well-understood market. Post-purchase SMS engagement is a real problem space with proven willingness to pay (Attentive raised $910M, Klaviyo IPO'd). However, this is a narrow wedge within a crowded marketing automation space, and the TAM is constrained by the specific post-delivery trigger use case unless they expand significantly.
High Signal
Founder Signal
Ilya Valmianski is a 2x founder with a UC San Diego Physics PhD who built production ML at Kaiser Permanente (SmartTriage, deployed to millions of patients, 25M clinical notes/year in production) and Curai Health (Staff ML Researcher, 5 published papers) before founding MDandMe (raised $2.5M, 100k+ patients). Alejandro Zaniolo brings confirmed GTM track record: Nestpick first sales hire to VP BD, then acqui-hired by Blueground where he scaled the founding Partner Network from 0 to 1,000+ B2B partners reaching $40M ARR and profitability. Strong technical plus operator split with both backgrounds now fully confirmed via LinkedIn.
Low Signal
Competition
Direct competitors include Attentive, Klaviyo, Postscript, Omnisend, and Emotive — all well-funded, established players with large customer bases and brand recognition. The differentiation claim (61% vs 4.5-14.7% engagement) is meaningful if it holds, but the mechanism (conversational AI vs broadcast SMS) is replicable. Gorgias, already an integration partner, could build this natively. The moat is thin and incumbents have distribution advantages.
High Signal
Product
Live dashboard with analytics, conversation management, and escalation flows. Shopify and Gorgias integrations built. LinkedIn posts confirm multiple paid pilots within 2 months of first line of code, with businesses serving millions of customers. Quantified pilot metrics: 67% reply rate by day 10 vs 4.5-14.7% for Attentive/Postscript incumbents, 70% return intent converted to exchanges, 15% of customers volunteer future purchase intent. Real customer testimonials (QMS named client). Fast execution from zero to paid pilots with strong engagement data is a high product signal.
OverallB Tier

Return Signals has confirmed founder credentials and real pilot traction: Ilya brings a Physics PhD and production ML experience at Kaiser/Curai before founding MDandMe, while Alejandro built a partner network to $40M ARR at Blueground after Nestpick was acqui-hired. Within 2 months of writing first code they have multiple paid pilots running with businesses serving millions of customers, and the engagement metrics (67% reply rate, 70% exchange conversion) are genuinely differentiated vs incumbents. The fundamental ceiling is competitive risk: Attentive, Klaviyo, or Postscript could add conversational AI to their existing distribution and immediately outcompete on customer relationships. This is a strong B with real execution, held back by a thin moat against well-capitalized incumbents.

Active Founders

Ilya Valmianski
Ilya Valmianski
Co-Founder/CEO

Co-Founder Return Signals. 2x founder. Previously built AI patient intake at Kaiser Permanente, medical ChatGPT before ChatGPT at Curai Health, and co-founded MDandMe. Physics PhD.

Alejandro Zaniolo
Alejandro Zaniolo
Founder

Co-founder at Return Signals. I like building things from the ground up. Previously helped take two startups from 0–1, including one acquisition and one profitable $40M ARR business.

Return Signals
Return Signals
TierB Tier
BatchWinter 2026
Team Size2
StatusActive
LocationSan Francisco, CA, USA
Last Updated1 day ago