Livestreaming has made an impact on a number of industries. But converting live viewers into actual buyers can be another story entirely. Now, vVents is looking to make that step easier with a platform that integrates ecommerce and donations right into the stream.
Read more about the platform and the company behind it in this week’s Small Business Spotlight.
What the Business Does
Hosts a livestreaming platform for people looking to raise money.
Barton Cothran, Vice President of sales and marketing for vVents, told Small Business Trends, “We host live video streaming with 4 HD camera feeds with e-commerce built in. We give complete freedom to the seller to have as many events with as many buyers as they can handle. Service requires no special camera, takes minutes to set up using a wizard, allows participation via “screen moments” for shoppers to ask questions face to face using video from their end.”
Business Niche
Completely scalable to businesses of different sizes.
Cothran says, “These platforms grow with the business, they have full customization, they can also be private “exclusive” sales events that are invite only for loyal customers. We also fully support artists and niche markets by allowing them to work together to compete with larger companies.”
How the Business Got Started
Because of a gap in the ecommerce market.
Cothran explains, “Founder and CEO saw the need for small businesses to have the ability to sell in their own “retail space” and be able to respond directly to their customers and bring back the feeling of buying from a person, not a giant company.”
Biggest Win
Creating a tech breakthrough.
Cothran says, “The success of our proprietary “vSpeak” video/audio compression codec which allows us to stream 4 streams in HD and soon UHD for a very small price. This allowed us to cut the cost for our customers by 75%.”
Biggest Risk
Developing something completely new.
Cothran says, “The largest would certainly be the development of vSpeak, had that not worked out all the investment made would have been lost due to being priced out of the market.”
How They’d Spend an Extra $100,000
Advertising.
Cothran explains, “We are fully funded, but an advertising budget would be nice to have.”
Team Motto
Thriving through diversity.
Cothran says, “The backgrounds of the executives are comically diverse. Founder is from a software giant. CEO has a back ground in big data analytics. The VP has a background in biochemistry/molecular biology and bioinformatics. This diversity has led to great communication between them.”
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Top Image: Pratik Khandagale, head of product, testing a prototype
