What’s the name of your startup?
Zipcan
What’s your title?
Fritz Brumder – CEO and Co-founder
Spenser Lea – CPO and Co-founder
In which city (or cities) is your company located?
Bend, Oregon
Describe your startup and its product/mission.
Zipcan brings video chat to every corner of the web. Embed a simple code snippet into your app or website to unlock a 2-way video experience for your users right within your platform. Our customers are creating new products, connecting their customers and launching new service models using real-time video chat. Check out this video to see the hype!
What got you into launching a startup?
Why did we pick Zipcan to innovate with? We are driven to develop and launch new products that enhance human interaction with creativity, fun and adventure. Using Zipcan should feel just like that! Previously we worked closely together at Brandlive, where Fritz was the Founder and CEO, and Spenser was the Director of Product Design. Combined, we’ve been building remote collaboration apps for over two decades. At Zipcan, we are excited to bring you the future of video collaboration!
What’s been the biggest challenge? Your proudest moment?
Our first challenge was getting video chat to work on any website as a no-code embeddable widget. Technology-wise this requires a lot of unique IP and scalability. We used our beta launch to prove our technology and validate our product-market fit with use cases. We are very proud of the customer stories we have created AND the fact that we achieved profitability from customer revenues within the first year.
What are the short and long-term goals for your startup?
We are just coming out of beta so the next 6-12 months will be focused on product lead growth and scaling use of our platform.
What’s your favorite thing about our region’s tech ecosystem?
Having moved from Portland to Bend, I am very pleased that TAO and other organizations have such a statewide presence. We feel connected to the Portland ecosystem. It is also validating that startups can sprout anywhere and the resources are always available, you just need to connect with them as an entrepreneur.
