Welcome to our founder lessons series. This week, Proficonf founders reveal the story behind their real-time video conferencing platform.
Introduction
Erasing borders between people
Proficonf was started back in 2016 as a means to connect professionals from all over the world and join them in one place. We hoped to create a convenient platform for paid training.
Back then we’ve been planning to implement already existent technological best practices. Having tested pretty much every popular online conferencing solution, we found them plain not enough for what we needed.
Whichever we’d choose, we were to sacrifice something: the number of participants limitations, sound promptness issues, narrow functionality. Video quality was mediocre at most in every tested platform.
Since there is no service that would satisfy our requirements, we had to develop our own, which we did. We brought our focus towards creating a progressive, adaptable and constantly growing videoconferencing platform to meet the growing market demand.
Proficonf mission is to facilitate information exchange no matter where the person is. Continuous video flow, smooth consistent sound, bandwidth adaptability are essential for efficient collaboration.
What has been the biggest success factors?
Strong belief in success and the team’s perseverance were the two important factors that kept our heads up.
Name the biggest challenges you have faced
The company was to be built from scratch. We had to learn from our own mistakes as we went.
Which do you think is most important: the right market, the right product, or the right team?
All factors matter to break through. To be honest, the team is of utmost importance in the long run. The right people make the best of products, they also do the best job of helping to fit the market the right way.
You know how they say: there are no bad startups, there are too few pivots.
Word of mouth
Proficonf has very recently joined the world tech community. Still thanks to the recent launches Proficonf is already picking up quite some buzz among tech industry professionals as well as positive reviews from our users.
Proficonf is a proud holder of Most Liked Product of the Day at Betalist on February 18, 2019.
We’re also lucky to be able to boast a successful Product Hunt Launch with #1 Product of the Day rank on February 25, 2019.
Functionality
It is an entirely new video conferencing platform that allows hosting video conferences without any downloads or installations.
Proficonf allows for sharing and playing various format files within a video conference without opening apps or new tabs. Having the capacity to get up to 250 participants – it works in your web browser. It includes high-quality real-time video and audio.
It is also combined with video recording and collaboration features such as:
- HD video quality
- connection adaptability
- whiteboard
- screen sharing
- instant file sharing to participants’ cloud storages
- built-in media player and file viewer
- ability to assign roles within a conference (moderator, speaker, viewer).
Proficonf works perfectly and holds stability even in a poor connection.
Alexey’s piece of advice to aspiring start-uppers/Words of wisdom for those chasing the startup dream
My basic advice would be – steer clear of the startup mindset. Commit to the project as if it is your operating business, consider your risks, cut costs, think practical, plan business efficiency from day zero. This may seem boring and not as cool as joining the startup gang, spamming venture investors or traveling to the Silicon Valley. But it is life, folks. And you will have to face market laws sooner or later.
Do not dream of it. Live it.
