Esna

The Esna Story

You've probably heard that 90% of all technology startups fail. There are many reasons this happens, and they are pretty well understood—lack of market traction, running out of money, inability to scale or compete. But there is another factor that’s often at play when a business is unsuccessful: the failure to evolve and adapt to changing customer needs and market dynamics.

Esna can credit much of its success to basically nailing it in that category. For over 26 years we have continuously evolved, shifting to meet new customer needs, developing new innovations, and re-inventing its business in order to continue its growth.

The Beginning of a Dream

In late 1988, Mahmoud Nezarati went to California to visit family. While there, a family friend in the voicemail business gave him some information on the emerging telecom and technology sector. Mahmoud was intrigued and brought the information home to his son Mohammad, who worked at General Motors as an engineer.

Mohammad (or Mo as he was known to friends and family) was an ambitious 23 year-old with big dreams. Feeling stalled at GM, he was ready to look for something he could build of his own. Reading the information his father brought home and doing some research, Mo was excited to realize there was no one really doing voicemail services in Canada and he saw his opportunity.

With a friend Mo started down the classic entrepreneurial path, forming tech start-up Esna Technologies in the living room of his parent’s home. While initially the business focused on marketing an auto-attendant voicemail solution that he had licensed, Mo and his partner quickly decided to build their own product, one that had a richer feature set and could be sold at a lower price point.

Esna is Redefining Communication and Collaboration

Today, Esna has proven its ability to both meet immediate market demands and lead the industry with new communication tools through an innovative and ever growing suite of products. With a strong stable of large enterprise customers and more than two million end users across 30 countries, Esna is no longer a startup, but that entrepreneurial spirit remains strong. In May 2015 Esna was acquired by Avaya, a recognized innovator and leading global provider of solutions for customer and team engagement.