Brian Casel - Introducing ZipMessage

Hi there,

Today I'm excited to announce the product that I've been quietly working on here in early 2021.

It's called ZipMessage.

It's a simple tool that makes it incredibly easy to ask your customers or colleagues to record their video or screen-share and join you in an asynchronous video conversation.

Here's how it works:

1. You can share or post your ZipMessage link with anyone—a customer, a client, a student, post it to your website or social media, etc.
2. They visit that link and within 2 clicks, they can record their camera or screen. Nothing for them to download or install.  Zero friction.
3. You can continue your conversation asynchronously, on a clean, custom-branded, page.
   

It's intended to be used with the tools you're already using. Drop your ZipMessage link into an email, into Slack, your project management tool, post it on your website, etc.

I'm exploring a few common use-cases for ZipMessage, including:

• Customer & client support — Asking customers to show you what they're seeing so you can help them or receive client input more efficiently.
• Pre-recorded hiring interviews — Ask applicants to record their answers your questions before committing to a live interview.
• Coaches & teachers — Ask your students to participate in 1-to-1 or small group sessions on video, all asynchronously, at scale.
• Remote teams — Ask your remote team to collaborate on video, without the disruption of live Zoom calls all the time.

Would you use it for something else? I'd love to know!

...

So here's the backstory on ZipMessage:

I was doing customer support for ProcessKit and I found myself constantly asking customers to share a video of their screen to walk me through their setup. Occassionally I'd resort to live Zoom calls, but that gets combosome, quickly.

I looked around at the common video recording tools (like Loom, etc.) and found that most of those are "one-way". But it's a ton of friction to ask someone else (a customer, a colleague etc.) to record their response for me, and then have a back-and-forth asynchronous conversation.

And so this shiny object idea for a product was born. And then I couldn't stop thinking about all of the other use cases for something like this. Client feedback. Hiring. Coaching and teaching. Remote collaboration. The list goes on...

In December, I built a prototype. It worked! In January, my developer and I continued to rapidly develop the product.

We're now about a month away from being "beta user ready". The plan is to begin releasing early access invites in March.

Request your invite for early access to ZipMessage » 

Questions? Feedback? Hit reply :)