UberConference integrates with Evernote and Box

Steven Loeb · January 22, 2013 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/2d0e

Users on UberConference calls will be able to share files from both services

Despite the many amazing collaboration tools we have to share content, there's always room for improvement. If you're like me, you get on countless conference calls to learn about a product, and often there's a GoToMeeting component for others to share their desktop and files. But with UberConference, the file sharing just got a tad simpler. 

To help solve this problem, conference calling app UberConference has integrated its service with Evernote and Box, it was announced Tuesday, allowing anyone on a teleconference to share Evernote notes and Box files. 

Here is how it works: During conference calls, all a user has to do is click the "share" button and then select the Box files and Evernote notes they would like to share.

When a file is shared during a call, a thumbnail of the document is added to the conference and all the other members of the call can simply click on it to access it. Since every participant on the call has an independent view, they can view different files at the same time.

The user that shared the file will have the option to delete a file that might have been added by mistake and to refresh content that might have been edited and updated within Evernote or Box during the call. At the end of the call, links to the notes and files are included in the call summaries for easy reference, and access to those documents takes place on Evernote and Box. 

Pleasanton, California-based UberConference is a call conferencing service that attempts to make the experience more visual. It allows people on the call to see the names, photos, and other information of the others in the call from any computer. The display shows the current speaker, and the organizer has a number of helpful tools to keep the conference running smoothly. They can record calls, mute participants to get rid of background noise or put “earmuffs” on people they may not want to hear part of the conversation.

"UberConference is audio conferencing with a visual interface that makes it easy to see who joined the call, who's talking at any given moment and to see public social media information on call participants, all with the goal of making conference calls more productive. With the integration of Box and Evernote, participants can easily and elegantly share documents within the UberConference interface, increasing the usefulness of the teleconference. We decided to start with Box and Evernote for a number of reasons, including their developer-friendly API and great product fit with our document sharing goals," Craig Walker , CEO and co-founder of Firespotter Labs, the company behind UberConference, told VatorNews.

What separates UberConference from other similar services, like GoToMeeting, is that it makes audio conferencing a more visual and exciting experience. The company, Walker says, is product-oriented, and he believes in "great design."

"Audio conferencing has not changed much at all in the last 20 years," Walker said. "In contrast, by putting a visual interface on conference calling, UberConference solves many of the pain points we all deal with each time we need to dial in to a teleconference. Our simple, clean interface makes using advanced features easy-to-use by clicking a button. It's simple to join phone conferences without PINs, see who is in the call and who is speaking, and run calls smoothly with powerful call management features."

Since launching in May 2012, Walker says that UberConference has "had pretty impressive growth," though he would not share any numbers. The company's customers are business people from every sized company from SMBs to enterprises, he said, but, once again, would not share any numbers.

Firespotter Labs has raised a total of $18 million, including a $3 million Series A from Google Ventures as an initial investment in 2011, and a $15 million Series B from Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures in July 2012.

UberConference also announced Tuesday that it was debuting conference call international access numbers in over 40 countries across Europe, Asia and South America. 

The new international access number feature is available and included automatically at no extra charge for all ÜberConference Pro and Business accounts.  ÜberConference Free accounts can upgrade to Pro for just $10 a month to get a local number.

About Box and Evernote

Box is an online file sharing and cloud content management service. In October, Aaron Levie, founder and CEO of the company, stated that Box had more than 140,000 businesses using its service, including 92% of Fortune 500 companies. The company has 14 million individual users, double the 7 million it had at a year before.

Not only that, but Levie said that Box had seen a 72% increase in the number of businesses that have adopted the service through the enterprise, and that it was receiving 500 million API calls per month.

in June, it raised a $125 million round, led by private equity firm General Atlantic, with participation from Previous investors Bessemer Venture Partners, DFJ Growth, New Enterprise Associates, and SAP Ventures. Scale Venture Partners also participated in the round, as did a new investor, the Social + Capital Partnership.

The investment was the third substantial round in 18 months after it raised $48 million in February 2011, in a round led by Meritech Capital Partners, with participation from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz and Emergence Capital Partners and prior investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Scale Venture Partners and US Venture Partners. In October 2011, Box raised $81 million from Salesfoce.com and SAP Ventures, with help from Bessemer Venture Partners, NEA, and existing investors Andreessen Horowitz and DFJ Growth. Its valuation at the time was $600 million.

UberConference will include a Box widget that has control features built in, including paging through documents, rotating and resizing images, and switching in and out of full screen view. 

"UberConference has built a visual phone conferencing service with a suite of powerful features including the ability to easily display and share business content directly from your Box account. We're excited to work with innovative companies like UberConference to drive businesses' productivity and make the conference calling experience more collaborative," Chris Yeh , VP of Platform at Box, said in statement.

Redwood City-based Evernote was founded in 2008. Since then the company has raised nearly $251 million, including a $70 million Series D round of funding at a $1 billion valuation in May 2012.

The company's entire customer base of around 48 million is made up of individuals, most of whom are business professionals.

UberConference is the first to ingrate with Evernote's business product, only launched  in August 2012. It also utilizes Evernote's Related Note functionality to automatically find notes that might be relevant to the call.

"By adding seamless note sharing, UberConference has made it dead simple to quickly exchange ideas and information during a collaborative call," Seth Hitchings, VP of Platform Strategy at Evernote, said in statement. "Combined with the integrated Evernote Related Notes feature, UberConference is a great solution for Evernote Business users looking for the smartest ways to work."

Note: Libin will be one of the Keynote speakers at the upcoming Vator Splash event in San Francisco on Feb. 13. Register here. Splash keynotes are TED-like presentations from seasoned and high-profile high-tech entrepreneurs, who share their lessons starting, building and scaling their startups. All speakers either founded a company that has IPO'd, sold for several hundred million dollars or is currently valued at more than $500 million. Past speakers include Peter Thiel, Tony Hsieh (Zappos), Dick Costolo (Twitter), Tim Westergren (Pandora), Aaron Levie (Box) and many more. Check out their invaluable lessons here.Splash Keynote archives.

UberConference put out the following video to explain the integration with Box and Evernote.

(Image source: https://www.uberconference.com)

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Evernote

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Our goal at Evernote is to give everyone the ability to easily capture any moment, idea, inspiration, or experience whenever they want using whichever device or platform they find most convenient, and then to make all of that information easy to find.

And we’ve done just that. From creating text and ink notes, to snapshots of whiteboards and wine labels, to clips of webpages, Evernote users can capture anything from their real and digital lives and find it all anytime.

Evernote is an independent, privately held company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Major investors include Sequoia CapitalMorgenthaler VenturesTroika Dialog, and DOCOMO Capital.

 

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