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Chris Messina

Zipcan beta - Add video chat inside your website or application in seconds

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Top Hunter
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Embed a code snippet into your app or website to unlock a 2-way video experience within your platform. Using Zipcan, you can create new products, engage customers and connect your community. We offer button, iframe or NPM module connections to common tools.

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Fritz Brumder
Maker
Hey Product Hunt, you know the feeling. Launch day. Tingles, excitement and exhaustion. It feels great! @spenser_lea and I are on a mission to create products that enhance human interaction with creativity and fun. Video has been the perfect playground for us. Video chat does not stop at meetings. We see an opportunity to bring video chat to every corner of the web so you can engage your audience, create new service offerings using video conferencing, and allow your community to connect. All without linking out to a meetings tool. Why do customers choose Zipcan? 🤔 - Using meetings tools, like Zoom, is not an option. You need something integrated with your platform. - Building from scratch using API’s is also not an option because it takes too much time and your engineers are busy on other projects. If you want to create conversations in context of your content and don’t have the resources to build something on your own, then Zipcan is a good fit. How does it work? 🔨 - Zipcan provides a simple admin to select your embed option, and configure your video chat integrations. Our embed options work with almost any website or web app, but we have provided step by step integration instructions for Hubspot CMS. Hubspot Meetings, Squarespace, Acuity Scheduling, Shopify, and Calendly. We love feedback so please share your comments. I vouch to ship a Pizza 🍕 to the best comment of the day. Who is hungry? What do I get for Free? 💰 - Zipcan is in beta and free. We offer embeddable video chat, unlimited rooms, customizable styles, and 10 hours of video conversations. After beta, we plan to offer full white label, call scheduling, payments, VOIP calling, call recording, transcription, video messaging and much much more. - During beta, Product Hunt users get 25% more free video call time usage (12.5 hours), plus a discount on our paid plans when they launch! Thanks @chrismessina for Hunting us. We made a point of launching on 11/11 so the date could make a #hashtag in honor of you. Thanks to our advisors @adnys + @jeffrey_hardison
Kevin William David
@fritzly Congrats on the launch. What are some interesting usecases you have seen from early customers?
Fritz Brumder
Maker
@fritzly @kevin We were just talking about that this morning as a team. Education, escalation from online chat, B2B sales, and immediate customer service (the "turbo tax example"). We specifically decided not to target specific use cases in this phase. We were nervous about it because as you know, focus is key. However, it seems to have paid off. Sign ups and embeds are going well so we are keeping an eye on usage for each use case.
David Ryan
@spenser_lea @chrismessina @adnys @jeffrey_hardison @fritzly Congrats on the launch Fritz & Co! Given you've built video-based companies in the past, I'm curious what's been the most surprising feedback or discovery from users in the alpha/beta phase so far?
Fritz Brumder
Maker
@spenser_lea @chrismessina @adnys @jeffrey_hardison @fritzly @davedri Great question. I am most pleased (surprised) by the fact that people get it so quickly and take action. Video is not an easy thing to create, especially if it is highly produced content. It can take months. The format of video we used for Zipcan, 2-way/realtime/chat/webRTC, eliminates the production factor. So you go from months to value to minutes to value. That is a big deal if that trend proves true with Zipcan. It is still early🤔
Zach Servideo
Impressive product. Sure, there are B2C implications here, but as the broader b2b world embraces video-first (or at least video-oriented) storytelling on their O&O properties, there will be a bigger demand from marketers for more sophisticated communication/nurture video tools like this one. Plus, I've worked with Fritz before and experienced his great ability to bring a video product to market with Brandlive. These guys have an idea with clear wide open space to execute against, and a proven track record of winning. I wish there was a button above "Upvote" to hit -- like "ASBOLUTE LOCK" -- because these guys are going to take off with this product. Good luck!
Fritz Brumder
Maker
@zachservideo 🙏 A few thoughts. B2B is always an opportunity for SaaS products that help transact. There is a huge need for clear communication in emotional purchases - especially when the contract value is $10,000++++ For all the makers out there, yes this is my second startup. It is always hard to get something off the ground but with a solid vision and engaged customers, you can always make progress. It just takes longer than you think 🤔 .
Jimmy Douglas
Congrats on the launch! I was immediately impressed by Zipcan the first time I used it. Love how it’s implementation reminded me of Stripe.
Fritz Brumder
Maker
@jimmydouglas I must admit, when I first saw your comment as an alpha user - "Zipcan is like Stripe (embeds with an easy line of code and "just works") for video". I had to screenshot it. These simple analogies can be so helpful with new products. Does anyone else have a analogy for Zipcan?
Chris Messina
Top Hunter
Hunter
@jimmydouglas high praise! And — it totally was that easy for me to integrate with my Squarespace site.
Jeffrey Hardison
If there's a proven founder who has created a product big brands use for video communications with their customers, it's Fritz and his experience with Brandlive. Now with Zipcan, Fritz is making video chat more accessible and easy to use for digital-product, marketing-website, and e-commerce teams. I tested Zipcan both for website chat applications and also in just having stable video calls with others, and I was very impressed.
Fritz Brumder
Maker
@jshardison Thanks Jeff! Vision matters! At my first company, Brandlive, my vision was to build the online version of QVC. We accomplished that in many ways. At Zipcan, our vision is to bring video chat to every corner of the web. Our beta product accomplishes that, but we have so much more we want to do. Judging by the customer sign ups already today, we have momentum to do great things with Zipcan.
Hussein Yahfoufi
Very cool, congrats on the launch. Years ago I used the Intuit video help chat and I was blown away by the experience. With the click of a button inside of Turbo Tax I was able to connect with an agent via video who could look at my screen and help me resolve an issue. Being able to provide the same support experience in our own site and apps without having to build it is truly awesome.
Spenser Lea
Maker
@husseinyahfoufi Thanks, and we agree! That's one of the great things about this, high value, low-cost/time implementation. Our hope is more people see that value, like you have!
Fritz Brumder
Maker
@husseinyahfoufi Hey Hussein. Did you see the little 🍕 in my founder post this morning? I vouched to send a pizza to the best comment. Guess what, you win best comment of the day so far. I like how you connected a very clear use case to a positive customer experience. This is what we are shooting for at Zipcan so you hit our core. DM me with your address on your platform of choice and your dinner is on me 🍕 🍕 🍕💵 . Let's make it happen today.
Hussein Yahfoufi
@husseinyahfoufi @fritzly haha that's awesome, I actually did not see the 🍕 comment but I am super interested in your product and will most likely use it. I just need to launch first! 😅
Fritz Brumder
Maker
@husseinyahfoufi @fritzly Excellent. @GetZipcan on twitter or connect with me on linkedin. Let's get you fed!
Lluís Ventura
Had the pleasure to had a call with @fritzly last Friday using Zipcan! Smooth, clean, easy, ...fantastic experience! Exploring ways to collaborate with you guys to mix the power of Zipcan and the async-first of comeet.me! Congratulations team!
Fritz Brumder
Maker
@fritzly @lluis_m_ventura Thanks for taking an early look. We prioritized speed and quality in the product. If others want to test a call today, we set up a slick little demo page: https://www.zipcan.com/demo
Ken Savage
Hey @fritzly cool product. I remember years ago thinking this exact technology would be cool to have on my website to engage customers deeper into the brand and the product. Could you explain to me what the NPM option is when embedding onto my page??
Fritz Brumder
Maker
@fritzly @kensavage Yes. So when you traditionally embed something into a website or app, iframe is the most common method. However, iframes have their down sides so often times when you need more advanced functions to work you use a script tag. That is helpful for running things like video chat and invite tokens which we have to do. NPM is a more advanced version of that because you have more control over how and where the script runs inside of your website or app. If you were looking for a more technical answer, @spenser_lea can expand on it.
Spenser Lea
Maker
@kensavage While our Button (script) and Direct (iframe) embed options can be embedded anywhere in your site, the NPM gives you a deeper layer of configurability and brings Zipcan into a web component that can be used to integrate into your own interactions, buttons, etc.. We've engineered the Button and Direct embed options to be user friendly and easily embeddable, while the NPM option is geared more for developers. Check out https://blog.zipcan.com/knowledg... for configuration options.
Franco Vargas Golac
I just signed up, looks awesome. @fritzly I was wondering if users will be able to record videos? Like leaving a video message instead of waiting for the other person to be available. I can see this could be useful in many cases.
Fritz Brumder
Maker
@fritzly @francovg_com Thanks for signing up and commenting here! We do have recording on our roadmap. Thew obvious kind of recording to capture, transcribe and trim the call. We also have a vision for a timeline like feature that will be very useful when a conversation is ongoing. You have a Sync video chat, then after the call, any call participant can post a recorded video message or reply. This would also work if you set Zipcan to "away mode" and wanted users to submit recorded video first. Use it as much as you can in Beta and we will work hard to make it better!
Franco Vargas Golac
@fritzly Thanks for the detailed answer. Do you have any documentation on how to allow calls among registered users on our platform?
Spenser Lea
Maker
@francovg_com Thanks for signing up! The way this would be accomplished right now is to embed the chat behind your own authentication method. However, we are considering SSO and custom authentication endpoints for enterprise customers. We would love to hear more about your use case! Grad some time with us here https://zipcan.com/contact
Harrison from VC Guide
Wait I feel like this is a bit game-changing to like inbound online chat sales (similar to how big of businesses Intercom or LiverPerson are) but also lightweight*. This is awesome, I'm excited for this!
Spenser Lea
Maker
@vcguidehq Thanks for the comment! We feel the same way. Customer engagement and sales enablement are excellent use cases for Zipcan!
Chris Coyier
Congrats gang! I've given this a spin and it's definitely the quickest and easiest way to toss up video chat on a site. The use cases are endless here.
Spenser Lea
Maker
@chriscoyier Thanks for the comment Chris! Glad you were able to find it easy to use.
Ron Sparks
This looks like a great way to spin up video! I've signed up did a quick test. Next step is to test out embedding for client communication in workshop space. Honestly this just opens the door to more possibilities and lower the barrier to entry for video. Excited about this product! Nice work to the team!
Spenser Lea
Maker
@ron_sparks Thanks for signing up Ron! Let us know how the embed goes!
Jack Phan
Congrats on the launch, @fritzly! Impressed with this product so far. A great improvement on being able to simply integrate video calls into website and apps. Pretty seamless. Interested to see how people plan on using this within their product stack.
Fritz Brumder
Maker
@fritzly @jackphan Thanks Jack! Your startup and media experience is inspirational in PDX! We had 2 goals in our product build. Make video chat work in any website or SaaS app. Then make it fast and simple to get into a call. How close did we get to our 2 goals?
Chris Messina
Top Hunter
Hunter
Think about it — at one point, generic email was what everyone had (@aol.com, @prodigy.com, @gmail.com)... but gradually we moved to branded/company/personal domains that we owned. We're in the same era when it comes to video calls — relying on third parties like Zoom or Google Meet and others to provide what is becoming the de facto way for people to communicate. Zipcan makes it possible to use your own URL/domain for video calls. Indeed, here's mine! https://chrismessina.me/call-me
Spenser Lea
Maker
@chrismessina Thanks for hunting us! Great assessment. It's true, anyone with their own site can enable it with video calling. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Zipcan be used to facilitate all kinds of conversations across the web! We're excited to see the ways people put this to use.
Luca Carducci
Zipcan is the easiest way to integrate video chat into a website! Easy to integrate and to use. I love it
Fritz Brumder
Maker
@blackshade91 Thanks Luca. Having worked on this project, what do you think was the most fun thing you worked on?
Luca Carducci
@blackshade91 @fritzly dealing with Socket and AWS infrastructure was fun, I'm proud to contribute to a solid product :-)
Tyler Phillipi
Really cool stuff Fritz! I have a use case that would be great but I need more time to develop. I can't wait to get started!
Spenser Lea
Maker
@phillipi Excellent to hear Tyler! We tried to make it as easy as possible to get video calling integration in your site with little friction. Let us know if you have any questions getting set up!
Taylor Wakefield
Looks like a useful sales tool, like drift, but for higher touch sales process. I get the sense people are tired of the chat bots and this would make sense for higher priced sales.
Fritz Brumder
Maker
@ktwakefield You got it Taylor. My favorite alpha sign up? Porsche USA!
Sean Ellis
Congrats on the launch. Looks really interesting!
Fritz Brumder
Maker
@seanellis Thanks Sean. Your leadership and content in the Growth Hacking space has been really helpful. I know @jeffrey_hardison is a fan too.
Damion Parsons
Thanks for connecting today @fritzly! I'm excited try Zipcan. Enabling our shoppers to connect with a stylists will definitely be a value add.
Fritz Brumder
Maker
@fritzly @damionp We love your use case so keep us up to date on how it is coming.
Bikash Makaju
Awesome product and it was really exciting in getting an early look and working on bringing Zipcan's vision to life with animation. Fritz and Spenser were really cool to work with and I really think the product has a lot of applications and is going to be very useful and interesting to communicate with customers.
Hey @fritzly I'm super impressed by your work, totally love it. Clear idea and looks already well designed and working
Fritz Brumder
Maker
@fritzly @timz_flowers 🙏 Appreciate you taking an early look. As a fellow maker, we are cheering you on to your launch! 🚀