We set out to build the easiest video mail platform available. That was 2007! Back then, everyone thought you needed a complicated application running on your desktop PC to create and send video messages. We thought differently, and created Eyejot, which ran inside your web browser!
We made it so that anyone with a modern web browser (Safari, Chrome, Firefox or IE) could run Eyejot on their Windows or Mac-based computer. With nothing to download and install we showed people that creating and sending video messages could happen within seconds! And that worked well for many years.
Even before Apple revealed their revolutionary iPhone to the world we knew mobile would play an important part in video and messaging. We even prototyped a Motorola Razr "flip-phone" recording and displaying video messages, and showed it when Eyejot was presented at DEMO 2007. After the iPhone was released, and in later years when Android phones became more capable, we knew this was the direction for video messaging.
Sadly, though, we were a little late to the mobile game. And when we finally released our iOS app we didn't keep it as updated as it should have been. We finally released an Android version but it wasn't something we were very proud of and it, too, suffered from a lack of proper attention.
What most people didn't know about Eyejot was that it was largely automated and had only a single employee for the last eight or so years. And that single employee, Eyejot's original founder, discovered how challenging it was to provide customer support, systems and software management and fix and add product features.
Is Eyejot gone for good? That's a good question. We've had so many fantastic interactions with customers from all around the world since we launched the product. Interestingly, we never raised money and have always self-funded the development and support of the platform. While that's partly to blame for Eyejot never getting very big, it also allowed us to operate at our own speed and add in the features we thought were important. This degree of independence also means that we retain all our own intellectual property, branding, source code and operational experience.
Were we to relaunch it would be after carefully reviewing the market opportunity and needs of our potential customers. We're still incredibly passionate about video mail and, remarkably, find the market fertile for innovation and growth. We've seen several companies come and go over the years in our space. Some were very marketing focused (bad) and others just had either really bad names and branding or, worse, poorly designed products. Despite our own products becoming a bit long in the tooth, we had a loyal and enthusiastic group of customers. So, if we chart a return, we'll certainly consult with them so that the right product gets built.
We'd like to thank all our customers - whether they were paying customers or people using our free platform. We were inspired by the myriad of ways in which Eyejot was used - from helping military families remain connected with loved ones serving overseas, to teachers communicating with students, to universities using Eyejot as a recruiting tool, to companies enhancing their support services with Eyejot video mail, to sales people around the world wowing potential customers with very direct and focused attention, to the deaf community using video message to provide a pathway for signing, to medical professionals exploring new ways to connect with colleagues and patients, to many, many other unique and wonderful ways something we built and loved creating was used. Thank you.