Tag Archives: zoom

04/29/20

Software — An App v A Feature

I read a comment on this blog from a guy (Jim Grey) who makes extraordinarily insightful comments. He hasn’t made a lot, but the ones he’s made are shrewd and well written. He writes an interesting blog I read from time-to-time.

He got me thinking about something at the juxtaposition between apps and software features.

He raised the question — is Zoom an app? Well, of course it is.

But, will Zoom one day be a feature in a larger more extensive piece or suite of software? An offering from a broader software company? I expect the answer to that is also “of course.”

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04/27/20

Facebook Messenger Rooms

It had to happen. Facebook noticed that Zoom was crushing it with their video meeting business, so Facebook decided to expand its existing Messenger video capability into something they are calling Messenger Rooms.

Like Messenger (700MM daily users — can that possibly be right?), a written chat product, Facebook expands that vision and calls its new Messenger Rooms a “video chat product” developed to serve the needs of their quarantined Facebook Messenger community.

Mark Zuckerberg differentiates Messenger Rooms from Zoom by suggesting, “All the products out there were primarily focused on enterprises and we thought that there was an ability to do something in the consumer space. It’s meant to be more casual.” Of course, he spoke via video chat from his home to accentuate just how homey the new FB product truly was.

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03/27/19

Anchors Aweigh, Tech IPOs

First quarter of 2019 was a bust for tech Initial Public Offerings. Some blame it on the government shutdown and the inability to get the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to respond to preliminary S-1s (registration document). Fair play to that sentiment.

A company files an S-1, the US SEC reviews it, the SEC provides comments, and the issuer makes revisions in response to the SEC’s comments. Now, your preliminary S-1 has become a final S-1 and you are registered. In two weeks, you can begin banging your drum. If the government is shut down, this process doesn’t happen.

If you just take a Mulligan for Q1-2019 and focus on the rest of the year, you may see a deep lineup of tech companies, familiar names amongst them, getting ready to make the leap.

Here is my favorite recent public offering, demonstrating her flexible approach to the world. Can you reach down and grab your foot while in a seated position? Her name is Tempe and she is a Southern girl from Savannah. But, I digress.

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