Highfive is an American

video conferencing Videotelephony (also known as videoconferencing or video calling) is the use of audio signal, audio and video for simultaneous two-way communication. Today, videotelephony is widespread. There are many terms to refer to videotelephony. ''Vide ...

company which combines

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles, suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...

-based

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

with its proprietary in-room video conferencing hardware. The company, established in 2012 by former Google employee Shan Sinha, has its headquarters in

Redwood City, California Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area of Northern California, approximately south of San Francisco and northwest of San Jose, California, San Jose. The city's population was 84,292 accor ...

. In 2016, ''Fortune'' named Highfive on its list of the "10 Best Small Workplaces in Technology.". In September 2020, Highfive is acquired b
Dialpad

History

Highfive was founded in 2012 by Shan Sinha and Jeremy Roy. Sinha, who was one of the developers of

Google Drive Google Drive is a file-hosting service and synchronization service developed by Google. Launched on April 24, 2012, Google Drive allows users to store files in the cloud (on Google servers), synchronize files across devices, and share files ...

, noticed while working for Google that there was a very high demand for videoconferencing, with tens of thousands of video calls regularly made. He left Google to found Highfive, believing that the market leader,

Skype Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...

, was not “secure or robust enough for business needs.” Sinha’s vision for Highfive is to “make videoconferencing as commonplace as e-mail in business.” After it was established, the company worked in stealth mode as Parlay Labs from 2012 until Highfive’s launch in October, 2014. In March, 2015 Highfive announced that they had raised over $45 million in total

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

. Investors in the firm include General Catalyst Partners,

Google Ventures GV Management Company, L.L.C. (file no. 4726690) is a venture capital investment arm of Alphabet Inc., founded by Bill Maris, that provides seed, venture, and growth stage funding to technology companies. Founded as Google Ventures in 2010, th ...

Andreessen Horowitz AH Capital Management, LLC (commonly known as Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z) is an American privately held venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. As of M ...

, Drew Houston,

Aaron Levie Aaron Winsor Levie (born December 27, 1984) (pronounced ) is an American entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of the enterprise cloud company Box. Early life and education Aaron Levie was born on December 27, 1984, in Boulder, Colorado, th ...

, Marc Benioff (Salesforce.com) and Shishir Mehrotra (YouTube). In March, 2016 the company announced a 341% growth in customers during 2015 and that it had surpassed the milestone of one million call minutes per week from over 1400 customers. In an interview with

Jim Cramer James Joseph Cramer (born February 10, 1955) is an American television personality, author, entertainer, and former hedge fund manager. He is the host of ''Mad Money'' on CNBC, and an anchor on ''Squawk on the Street''. After graduating from Ha ...

, Sinha commented on the market success: "We are seeing some really big secular trends happening that are causing people to be more comfortable with video. The new workforce is all at an age now that they grew up with video.” In May, Highfive announced that they had incorporated telephone conferencing service Dolby Voice into its services.

Services

Highfive’s software is

cloud-based Cloud computing is "a paradigm for enabling network access to a scalable and elastic pool of shareable physical or virtual resources with self-service provisioning and administration on-demand," according to International Organization for ...

and linked to its in-room

device. Its applications work on personal computers, iPhone, iPad or Android devices, and require little time to set up.

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is li ...

technology enables calls to be initiated on a mobile device or tablet and then beamed onto a large TV screen, which the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' likened to “an Apple TV with a 1080p HD camera and a microphone with a 30-foot range attached.” ‘’Entrepreneur’’ wrote of the product: “Each device delivers HD video and high-fidelity audio. Installation is easy and straightforward. The interface is intuitive. There are no extra cables or wires; instead, each user downloads a special extension for the Google Chrome web browser, which allows the system to share screens wirelessly from the main interface onto individual employees’ laptops or smartphones.” Sinha stated in a March, 2015 interview with

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician a ...

that video conference equipment market leaders such as

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, s ...

Polycom Poly Inc., formerly Polycom, is an American multinational corporation that develops video, voice and content collaboration and communication technology. Poly is a subsidiary of HP Inc. Polycom was co-founded in 1990 by Brian L Hinman and Jeff ...

and

Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ("Huawei" sometimes stylized as "HUAWEI"; ; zh, c=华为, p= ) is a Chinese multinational corporationtechnology company in Longgang, Shenzhen, Longgang, Shenzhen, Guangdong. Its main product lines include teleco ...

have wealthier, IT savvy customers who are the "only ones who can afford the complexity and the cost of those systems, which are entirely too hard to use.” He argues that Highfive is unique because it offers a product of comparable quality and better functionality, available for businesses of all sizes, in any room, at 1/20 of the cost. Philipp Karcher, a senior analyst with

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

based Forrester Research concurred that Highfive’s strength lies in it accessibility to smaller firms and its relatively lower cost. A Polycom-sponsored study conducted by Wainhouse Research found that Highfive was "going after a market of about 30 million to 50 million meeting rooms." Known clients include Mimeo.com,

Warby Parker Warby Parker Inc. is an American eyewear brand and retailer of prescription glasses, contact lenses, and sunglasses, based in New York City. Founded in 2010, it was initially an online-only retailer. It now receives (about two-thirds) of its r ...

Shutterfly Shutterfly, LLC. is an American photography, photography products, and image sharing company, headquartered in San Jose, California. The company is mainly known for custom photo printing services, including books featuring user-provided images, ...

Evernote Evernote is a note-taking and task management, task-management application software, application developed by the Evernote Corporation. History Evernote was acquired by the Italian technology company Bending Spoons in November 2022. Usage ...

, Patagonia, Slack, and Zenefits. ''Fortune'' states that in June, 2016 Highfive now faces competition from Logitech, Lifesize, Huawei, and ZTE in targeting smaller firms with video conferencing services.

Surveys

Highfive has become known for its surveys into workforce habits. In September, 2015 Highfive commissioned a poll, in which they surveyed 1200 office employees on distractions during the workday. In June, 2016 the company, in conjunction with Zogby Analytics, conducted a video conferencing survey which found that nearly half of the 800 respondents found video conferencing unsettling due to being conscious of their appearance on camera.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.highfive.com Web conferencing Teleconferencing

History

Services

Surveys

See also

References

External links