When Michael Chasen, the founder of Blackboard, was in college, he and a friend had a brainstorm and came up with the online platform for classroom management, called Blackboard. The original company was eventually bought over by another company at a huge amount of $1. 64 billion in 2011. But Chasen’s entrepreneurial journey is not over yet.
In the wake of the pandemic with teachers getting familiar with the remote learning process Chasen designed Class, a Zoom add-on that greatly improves the virtual classroom experience. However, this tool had much more than a place for education in the classroom. Users went for a similar solution adjusted with the focus on a business. Further from that, on Thursday, Class presented its new ProFeatures for Zoom, an outstanding business extension.
What Are ProFeatures for Zoom?
ProFeatures of Zoom will be an addition to Class, incorporating the best features that Class has and adjusting them to fit for the business.
- Collaborative Editing: Rather than just sharing one screen with a single person who is the only one with control over all the edits, ProFeatures allows everyone to edit documents in Microsoft Office or Google Docs collaboratively. If you are bringing fresh ideas on Miro whiteboard or sharing codes on the Microsoft Visual Studio, ProFeatures will facilitate real-time collaboration which means that the meetings will be more productive and efficient.
- Built-In Browser: In case the SaaS service you want is not part of the built-in tools, ProFeatures offers a built-in web browser with access to any website or application. You can have many tabs open which opens up for people to share many screens and not only the presenter’s screen.
- Viral Marketing: Chasen took a unique strategy to advertise the ProFeatures. After one of our ProFeatures users has shared a document during a Zoom meeting, the other participants get a message prompting them to download ProFeatures for enhanced editing rights. This viral marketing method has, to a large extent, assisted in the rapid implementation of the tool.
Licensing Enterprise and Viral Growth
Even though single ProFeatures users can use it for free, its major potential lies in enterprise licensing. Organizations will see benefits of single IT control, single sign-on and other prioritized features for large-scale deployment. Chasen has already sold V$17 million worth of ProFeatures enterprise licenses even before the official product launch.
The viral nature of this tool, together with its convenient attributes, is what has been driving its success. With the satisfaction of mutual inputs and smooth interaction between Zoom, they become ambassadors, spreading the word among their colleagues and friends.
Conclusion
The transition of Michael Chasen from Blackboard to Class and now ProFeatures is the epitome of the innovating and adjusting mentality. He proved his competence in adapting digital solutions to various users as he renovated a Zoom add-on that teachers utilized into a powerful tool for business. Zoom’s ProFeatures is aligning to improve business partnerships virtually through every digital meeting.
Image Source: TechCrunch
