Brief introduction, journey behind ‘chat’ features
I’m Badri Rajasekar, co-founder and CEO of Jamm. Before founding Jamm, I was CTO and SVP of Engineering at TokBox, which was acquired by Vonage in 2018 and is now part of its API Nexmo platform. At TokBox, I spearheaded the development of some of the core technology that has been used by thousands of companies and powered billions of video minutes.
All this adds up to the fact that I have a lot of experience in video, and a passion to make it easier for people to use in their everyday lives. The enterprise world is quickly changing, and we believe Jamm is the solution to a number of problems facing video in business environments. That’s why we built Jamm, and that informs the mission behind our work.
About Jamm app and what makes it different?
Jamm is a lightweight, spontaneous voice and video collaboration app built for remote and distributed teams that launched in early 2020. We think of Jamm as a “sidecar” app: we don’t want to give users yet another app to balance within their already crowded workflow, so we’ve integrated with Slack and several other common workplace apps to fill a need that we feel is not being addressed: the quick, unscheduled video call. “Zoom Fatigue” is very real, and many scheduled video calls are a time suck and mentally exhausting.
By giving users the ability to use live or recorded asynchronous video, they can connect on their own time versus someone else’s. Especially now that teams are completely remote and increasingly distributed around the world, Jamm gives users multiple options for connecting and sharing the next great idea.
Growth of video conferences during COVID-19 affected Jamm?
It’s interesting because we launched right before the pandemic really upended everyone’s lives. While we knew the overall trend before the pandemic was allowing more people the flexibility to work remotely, it has forced everyone to evolve very quickly. That has caused some growing pains, and many people are exhausted by a constant parade of video conference calls. Jamm solves that problem by allowing quick, spontaneous check-ins, similar to “watercooler conversations” or random drop-bys in the office. These are where some of the most creative ideas are batted around, and we’re bringing that ability and functionality to remote teams.
What’s Jamm’s USP?
Jamm is really focused on two unique aspects: streamlining collaboration and building culture. With collaboration, sometimes inspiration cannot wait for a scheduled video call, so Jamm lets teams check-in and brainstorm quickly and easily. Additionally, with some team members spread across different time zones, they can record and share videos of their ideas (or perhaps a challenge they’re experiencing) without waking up a teammate who may be asleep halfway across the globe.
For building culture, Jamm’s ability to connect people quickly and easily lets teammates establish strong rapports, rather than be stuck on a huge video conference call passively listening. Jamm is an app for doers, and that includes building friendships with coworkers and colleagues. We are a conduit, not a roadblock, for collaboration and culture-building.
What user base has Jamm achieved at this time?
We’ve found that two spaces especially seem to enjoy using Jamm: engineering and development teams, and teams in creative industries like advertising and marketing. Because these two industries rely so heavily on quick feedback, brainstorming, spontaneity, and the “creative spark,” it makes sense that teams that place a premium on those characteristics in their enterprise apps and love using Jamm.
New areas where Jamm is looking to expand?
We’re currently exploring several different spaces where Jamm could be a game-changer. One of those is college and adult education, where a lecture could be given via Zoom, with smaller breakout groups then heading to Jamm to collaborate on projects. Also, Jamm is a great asset in areas where small groups can collaborate and work on projects outside of the actual classroom.
Are there any future plans you can share at this time?
The Jamm team is looking to implement more AI features like background blurring, automatic face centering, lighting correction, and more. Additionally, mobile is obviously a huge area that is going to be very important as people start going back to work and start moving around more regularly. Overall, we believe in creating strong integrations with existing applications and, in fact, just this week released a deep integration of Jamm with Slack where users can jump into conversations or record video snippets from right within Slack.
