Backstory Reviews & Product Details

Backstory (formerly People.ai) is the Revenue Answers Platform for GTM leaders. Revenue leaders ask the same questions every day: Is this deal real? Where's my risk? What do I focus on next? Backstory gives you straight answers - grounded in 100% of actual revenue activity, not CRM guesses. With more than a decade of training AI models on billions of sales interactions, Backstory connects every signal to the right accounts and opportunities and delivers answers where you already work - whether that's your CRM, Claude, Copilot, or other AI tools you already use. With Backstory, you can: - Know which deals are real and which are at risk, without waiting for rep updates - Get forecast answers you can defend, backed by actual activity data - Ask revenue questions directly in the AI tools your team already uses - See exactly what's happening across your pipeline and what to do next Sales leaders from Red Hat, Palo Alto Networks, Iron Mountain, TransUnion, Five9, and Randstad rely on Backstory to drive trillions in pipeline and revenue. Recognized by Gartner and Forrester, the Inc. 5000, Y Combinator Top Companies, and Forbes AI 50. Based in San Francisco and backed by ICONIQ Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Seller

Backstory

Discussions

Backstory Community

Languages Supported

English

Solution Type

All-in-One

Overview by

Amy Brandl (--)

Used by PandaDoc and 2 others

Beta

Value at a Glance

Averages based on real user reviews.

Time to Implement

3 months

View More Pricing Information

Backstory Integrations

(2)

Verified by Backstory

Backstory Reviews FAQs

Generated using AI

Last updated: Nov 04, 2026

What is Backstory, and what problem is it built to solve?

Backstory is used to capture and organize sales activity, giving teams visibility into customer engagement, opportunities, and sales performance. It helps reduce manual CRM updates and makes it easier to see where teams should focus.

What languages does Backstory support?

Backstory supports 1 language: English.

What company sizes and industries is Backstory the best fit for?

Backstory appears to suit teams across small, mid-market, and enterprise organizations, with the strongest reviewer presence in mid-market and enterprise settings. Positive experiences span several technology-oriented sectors as well as telecommunications.

How long does it take to implement Backstory across a team?

The most common reported time to go live is 1–3 months, though implementation can be faster or take longer depending on the rollout.

What customer support options does Backstory provide, and how do users find the overall support experience?

Support is available through email/help desk, chat, and a knowledge base. The support experience is often described as responsive, helpful, and hands-on during setup and ongoing use; some users also encounter upfront configuration work or slower follow-up.

What tools and platforms does Backstory integrate with, and how do these integrations help users get more value from the product?

Backstory offers 2 integrations, both in the Salesforce category:

Salesforce: Salesforce Platform and Salesforce Sales Cloud

These connections help keep sales activity and CRM records together, making it easier to review pipeline information and update records without as much manual work.

What features or capabilities could make Backstory even more useful?

More flexible reporting and a smoother way to work with data are the clearest opportunities to make Backstory more useful.

Expand reporting customization, including more flexible dashboards, filters, and cross-object views.
Improve activity capture and data matching so engagement records are more complete and accurately tied to accounts and opportunities.
Make common editing and collaboration workflows easier, including clearer sync feedback and more convenient sharing or exporting.

G2 reviews are authentic and verified.

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Micah P.

Commercial Account Executive

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

6/28/2022

"Great insights Fun Data!"

5/5

What do you like best about Backstory?

Love the diversity of information that people.ai gives. From targeting and seeing how each opportunity I'm working on. Multiple activity and touch points help you see what is resonating and where my activities are best targeted. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Backstory?

There are still some activities that don't show. LinkedIN engagement or personal calls and texts, but that is a very very tiny imperfection. I really have nothing else negative to bring up. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Backstory:

Definitely use People.ai it is a great tool and it's much more than just tracking activity. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Backstory solving and how is that benefiting you?

With the scope and scale of larger enterprise deals there needs to be a way to quantify all avenues to help customers. Meeting their needs and aligning with my solution. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Rick Reid of Backstory

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Thanks for the review, Micah! Thanks for your feedback, we are always looking to improving our data sources, and both of those are great suggestions. Personal calls/texts are hard to do, without being connected to some kind of capture software.

Fred H.

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

4/14/2022

"Excited about People.ai"

5/5

What do you like best about Backstory?

Ability to see trends between activities that matter (Team Performance, Buying Personas, Deal Room stats, etc.) and sales results. Look forward to incorporating these results in our regular reviews with our salespeople. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Backstory?

We are still working through the final steps of our implementation, so it is a little early. I'm seeing abnormally low performance results for some salespeople who we strongly believe are doing more than their results indicate, so we need to drill down to see what is going on... Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Backstory:

Make sure you have the full engagement and support of your internal CRM support team. The integration of People.ai into your CRM solution is absolutely key to the success of the program. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Backstory solving and how is that benefiting you?

We were already able to use Deal Performance results to confirm low performers on the team. It is a little early in our implementation to define the metrics that we can point to that lead to success. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Rick Reid of Backstory

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Thanks for your review! You've had a couple of months now, let us know how you've implemented People.ai into your regular sales reviews.

Verified User in Computer Software

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

6/28/2022

"Great insight into Salesforce usage and love the integration"

4/5

What do you like best about Backstory?

People.ai is definitely helpful to see where I stand across my team in terms of metrics and productivity. As a sales professional I am competitive, so to be able to effectively get data or information on our team's ranking gives me a definite idea of where I need to work on and improve. I am able to track my activities and assess how it relates to the sales I produce. It helps define what activities to focus on as well. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Backstory?

What I do not like about it is, other people can also see my activities. So I think that is something that comes along with it probably to motivate others to do well on our job Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Backstory solving and how is that benefiting you?

Measuring activities. The problems that people ai has solved for me is my traction to the sales opportunities I have with my clients. It benefited me to see how once improvement is directly proportional on the day to day activities that you are doing. In my experience, having the ability to see those data greatly help me to improve day by day and I am more motivated to do more. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Rick Reid of Backstory

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Thanks for the review! We are glad you are finding it useful. Depending on how users are configured on your system, only your managers and people on your specific team should be able to automatically see your activities. Check with your People.ai admin about those settings, and have them reach out to us if changes are necessary.

See how Backstory improved

Caroline C.

Area Vice President of Sales, Western US Territory

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

4/6/2022

"CyrusOne is able to take selling to the next level with actionable intelligence with People.ai."

5/5

What do you like best about Backstory?

We knew that our buying personas had been changing over the last 36 months. We also knew that buying behaviors were changing prior to the pandemic. People.ai has unlocked what was occurring with real data, and we don't have to make decisions off our gut feelings. People.ai has enabled valuable insights that we had not anticipated or expected. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Backstory?

The only thing I've not liked, is that we did not have a tool like this sooner. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Backstory solving and how is that benefiting you?

As People.ai builds the data in the background of our SalesForce tool, week over week, we are unlocking further information to help our leaders know which deals could be at risk; where to coach sales reps; and furthermore what right looks like in terms of engagement to a mutual win with our customers. People.ai also helps sales professionals track their engagement levels through the various stages in the pipeline so that they are continually engaging to win deals. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Rick Reid of Backstory

edit

We are so glad you like People.ai!

Yigal R.

Business Applications Manager

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

11/9/2022

"Great enterprise solution for Gmail activity capture"

4/5

What do you like best about Backstory?

It captures all emails and events from Gmail and auto relate to records in salesforce Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Backstory?

lack of capability to divide and analyse scheduled events participants, they all come up in SF on a single attribution Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Daniel N.

Strategic Account Executive

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

8/9/2022

"Huge time saver for anyone working in sales!"

4.5/5

What do you like best about Backstory?

The ability to edit my opportunities as well as structure my account prospecting without spending a ton of time in SFDC. Peopleglass makes it quick and easy for me to adjust close dates, next steps, and opportunity stages, and structure my account tier strategy for both myself and ADR. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Backstory?

Some of the filter types/names are not as intuitive as I would like, but I'm also just getting started and new to the application - there is a lot more to learn! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Brett M.

Manager, North America Digital Sales

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

5/11/2022

"Sales Manager"

5/5

What do you like best about Backstory?

The best tool I've used for tracking sales rep productivity, KPI's and metrics. Easily digestible UI and layout. Have the ability to dig deeper into the deals that reps are working and the contacts they have cultivated relationships with Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Backstory?

Waiting for the salesforce integration. Don't think this is a people.ai issue, but more something we are waiting on our side in terms of implementation. Something I'll gladly wait for. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Backstory:

If you are looking for a sales tool to help track the metrics and KPI's of your sales reps this is the tool for you! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Backstory solving and how is that benefiting you?

I love the deal room functionality where I can cross-reference the deals/opps in SFDC with what I'm seeing the most traction on in People.ai - it helps verify the deals that are being worked. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Rick Reid of Backstory

edit

Thanks for your review! People.ai is even more useful when viewed within SFDC, hopefully we can get your integration done soon.

Verified User in Computer Software

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

7/21/2022

Business partner of the seller or seller's competitor, not included in G2 scores.

"First month using Peopleglass"

4.5/5

What do you like best about Backstory?

the ability to update all my accounts from one platform, used to always use airtable or google table to track accounts in a very similar way but would have to double entry data and would always double eneter. with people glass its one stop shop with no need to double enter. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Backstory?

Lack of a proper grouping functionality, airtable and google tables ability to sort and group accounts is easier to build and manipulate. I would like more prebuilt funtionality and the ability to intergrate with other sites like sixsense for example for the ability to stack rank accounts Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Richardson A.

Account Executive

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

Originally submitted 8/12/2021

"An all in one report for sales people"

5/5

What do you like best about Backstory?

As an account executive it helps me manage my daily work step towards finishing my day. it provide me insights on what to do next, as part of sales personel activity is one of the biggest asset to reach my goal. By using People.ai I know if i need to makes more calls for the day or i'm lacking some meetings to hit my target. It also provides our team some insights on what works and not working individually. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Backstory?

Call data is a bit delayed sometimes it takes a day or 2 before it shows the accurate number of call activity it's better if the report can be done real time. overall I can say that People.ai. is almost perfect especially now that most of the company are working at home reports for activity are now automatically generated. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Backstory:

This is perfect for a medium to large sales team, I would recommend People.ai. Automated opportunity contact role creation, and Gmail suite activity sync function is awesome and will avoid issues. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Backstory solving and how is that benefiting you?

I am mainly looking to see my progress daily. Often, this leads to boosting productivity gives me an idea what to do next more calls or meetings or more email should I send the clients. Accurately provide me idea where my activity stand in our team. Unlike before that we don't use this great application we only assume some of the activity we do and mostly we get error and inaccurate report. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Mark Gallant of Backstory

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Thank you for leaving a great review for People.ai! We've forwarded your note to development and please feel free to sync up with your Customer Success Manager if you haven't already. Have a great day.

Harold G.

Manager

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

Originally submitted 8/9/2021

"Revenue Generator"

5/5

What do you like best about Backstory?

Speed I think is very essential! People.ai uses data and customer profiles to better serve customers with tailor-fit messages. My team is under Sales and People.ai enables me to separate my customers into different personas and see what motivates them. I like the fact that People.ai assists me on my daily meeting reminders via email. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Backstory?

Data on agent productivity is sometimes-off!and inconsistent. Maybe this was just an isolated incident. Otherwise, People.ai is still the best as it shows how productive the team members are in terms of daily quotas. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Backstory:

I get my day going from meeting reminders to a more efficient work on analyzing customers response via People.ai's Outbound Touches! People.ai helped me a lot during my prospecting and contributed on my revenue. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Backstory solving and how is that benefiting you?

Analyzing customers based on their progression among segments, I can achieve dynamic segmentation and see my customer's behavior. This led me to get them on Zoom meetings and closing the sale. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Mark Gallant of Backstory

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Thank you Harold for such a great review. Sorry to hear about that incident and please contact our support team if needed. So pleased we are able to really help you make a difference with your customer personas.