Mar 18, 2021
Whereby — where better meetings happen
Turns out most humans aren’t made for spending 10 hours a day in front of Zoom.
Don’t get me wrong: I love Zoom. We’ve been using it for years at Point Nine, and it’s been a huge quality upgrade over Skype and Google Hangout, which we had been using before. The company’s growth in the last 12 months has been truly spectacular and has catapulted Zoom into one of the most valuable companies in the world. When we talk about Zoom fatigue, let’s not forget that when the world went into lockdown a year ago, Zoom helped tens of millions of businesses, families, and schools to stay in touch. I’m honestly thankful for that, and I’m wondering how much worse it would have been if there had been a global pandemic 20 years ago.
However, in the last 12 months it has become apparent that Zoom is great for certain types of meetings but very bad for others — e.g. virtual networking dinners, to use an example I wrote about before — which has led to numerous startups creating innovative video meeting products for everything from social gatherings (e.g. Toucan) to workshops (e.g. Butter) and hybrid events (e.g. Around). As video became an integral part of everyone’s daily life, it also became clear that tomorrow's video tools must provide a more enjoyable experience than today.
This is where Whereby comes in. Built by an amazingly talented team in Norway, Whereby is the easiest way to meet over video. There’s no app or software download required. Just choose a room URL and meet using your internet browser — on mobile or desktop — with only one click. But Whereby isn’t only making meetings easier, it’s actually making them better. Here’s a little more background about why we invested in Whereby and why we’re so excited about the team, the product, and the opportunity:
