Profile banner
Chris Barley

Chris Barley

Co-Founder & CEO at Converso, AI customer support

chrisbarley
London, England
Joined December 2025
Favicon imageuk.linkedin.com
Favicon imagex.com
Favicon imageconverso.io

Network

5.1K connections
🚀
Startup Founders
🤖
AI LLM Innovators
💰
Accounting Finance Advisors
⚖️
Legal Tech Professionals
💻
Software Developers
📞
Vonage API Group
🤝
Toptal Network

Summary

Founder and CEO building an AI-native customer support product that blends AI agents with human teams to scale support across webchat, WhatsApp and SMS. converso+1
Focus on conversational commerce: embedding payment requests into messaging and integrating low-cost payment rails (Open Banking) to improve invoice visibility and cashflow for small service businesses. co+2
Background in communications, telecoms and product management with long experience in building messaging and payments products for businesses. enterprisenation+1
Practical advocate for compliant business messaging: explains WhatsApp Business API benefits (shared inbox, archiving, auditability) and positions Converso to meet compliance needs for advisory firms and regulated professions. jonathonbray+1

Work

Education

Writing

How AI Agents Are Revolutionising Customer Conversations | Chris Barley, Co-founder, Converso

June 19, 2025

Video interview discussing Converso's journey from SMS to an AI-driven omnichannel communications platform, how AI Agents are trained on business data, omnichannel importance, human–AI handover, and data security/compliance in AI communications.

Favicon imageyoutube.com

Using AI technology to improve customer support with Converso CEO Chris Barley

April 14, 2024

Podcast episode (17 minutes) in which Chris Barley discusses using AI to improve customer support and Converso's platform capabilities.

Favicon imageimdb.com

WhatsApp compliance: How to be compliant whilst using smartphone messaging services (featuring Chris Barley / Converso)

July 1, 2022

Discussion of operational and compliance challenges of using WhatsApp for business and how WhatsApp Business API plus platforms like Converso enable shared team inboxes, archiving, auditability and integrations for advisory firms.

Favicon imagejonathonbray.com

Chris Barley: Helping Service-based Businesses Engage More Effectively With Their Customers via Whatsapp and Text Conversations

March 1, 2022

Interview covering Converso's approach to messaging and payments: using WhatsApp and SMS to improve customer support, embed payment requests in messages, shared inboxes for teams, and Open Banking payments to reduce costs.

Favicon imagebeststartup.co.uk

Notes

TPThomas Powersaid
CBChris Barley
has demonstrated outstanding leadership in growing a SaaS business.

Jan 30, 2026

TPThomas Powersaid they've seen
CBChris Barley
create a consumer product that stands out from the crowd.

Jan 21, 2026