With the democratization of teleworking, online meetings, training and seminars have become part of the habits of many professionals. From now on, everyone meets and communicates behind a screen thanks to videoconferencing tools such as Livestorm. More than a videoconferencing platform, the company sees itself more as a video engagement platform for its meetings, webinars and virtual events from A to Z. Gilles Bertaux, Co-founder and CEO, looks back on the beginnings of the company, its development and ambitions.
From student project to business
In 2015, Gilles Bertaux and his three partners are in their final year of master’s degree at the web school HETIC. Like any student, they must design a graduation project. During its development, they made an observation: videoconferencing solutions are too complex. ” To be able to participate in an event in order to hear someone talk about a project or a product, it was complicated. The tools of the time involved downloading heavy software onto one’s computer. », recalls the Co-founder and CEO of Livestorm. ” There was no integration, no API… We felt it was completely uncorrelated “, he adds.
EU decides: authorities cannot keep citizens’ phone data
” At that time, we felt there was a technology shift from download to cloud base “, explains Gilles Bertaux. The challenge is then to create a videoconferencing tool accessible more easily and without constraint. For this, the Co-founder and his associates designed Livestorm, a cloud-based product available via the web.
The dual objective is to develop a product that better meets the needs of marketing professionals and is ergonomic. ” We thought we were going to do something that cares about the video, but also cares about the experience of the host “, he says.
After a first successful presentation, made directly from the newly created platform, the young students decide to professionalize their project. They embark on the development of a design prototype to concretize their idea and seduce their first customers. They then target professionals operating in Tech or SaaS boxes, who already use a tool of this type or who would find it useful. ” We knew they were quick to change quickly. And I think for the first 100 customers basically it went like this “, explains Gilles Bertaux. Today, between 800,000 and 1 million users per month have experience with the platform. Livestorm has 4,600 customer accounts.
Rapid growth accelerated by the pandemic
Since its creation, the company has come a long way. The latter was punctuated by several fundraisers, including a first in 2017. Among the investors, Bpifrance Investissement, Kima Ventures and a few business angels. In total, more than 500,000 euros have been raised to finalize the growth of Livestorm. ” We spent very little. We used self-service tools like Mailchimp and Intercom. We wanted to develop the business like that and stay on pure and simple acquisition, so without salespeople “says the Co-founder. ” This brought us up to the million euros of Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) “, he adds.
Quickly, the company develops and recruits. In 2019, it achieved a second funding round of 4.6 million euros in series A. A year later, driven by the democratization of telework and the advent of videoconferencing platforms, Livestorm raised 30 million euros. ” In March 2020, we had around 1,000 customers. In the space of three months, so until the end of May 2020, we register 2,000 customers », Reveals Gilles Bertaux. Among them, new profiles, including education and training professionals, as well as institutions. Faced with this dazzling growth in use, we had to adapt quickly. ” We focused on two things: customer support, which had gone from 2,000 to 20,000 conversations per month, then we decided on the roadmap. It was totally focused on the reliability of the platform for the next few months, it was intense, but we got there “, he explains.
Rethinking video conferencing
On the market, there are still many tools that need to be downloaded to a device. ” When you install videoconferencing software on your computer, you have access to a whole bunch of system files to be able to configure the webcam, for example. This is not the case for a browser. We know what’s going on so everything is more transparent “says Gilles Bertaux.
By relying on a browser and the cloud, Livestorm aims to make videoconferencing more accessible and secure, but also intelligent. The objective is to allow everyone to access the desired services in a single place, without having to go through several tools.
” We are convinced that there is a gap between the classic call that is made between colleagues and the virtual event, an event organized once a year with thousands of participants. “, explains the Co-founder. ” Everything that comes between the two (webinars, team buildings etc.) is the territory of our platform “, he adds.
The latter is intended to be much more than a means of conversing at a distance. It is positioned as a real workplace, in which employees can prepare, lead and distribute meetings and web conferences. Thanks to the integrations, they also have access to additional functionalities and APIs in order to improve the organization of their online events and to have an enriched user experience. ” When you make a sales call to present a product to a customer, you want to offer an optimal experience. We want to be able to add our visual identity, show media easily, PDFs… That’s where we come in. That’s how we stand out from the competition, in my opinion. », explains the CEO.
To become a true ally in the daily lives of professionals, Livestorm is continuing its efforts. Inspired by how CRMs work, the platform recently introduced pay-per-use pricing. This method is still not very widespread in the field of videoconferencing, whose tools are mainly billed by license. The company also intends to offer new customization possibilities and develop the collaborative pan to offer everyone a complete experience in every way.