When COVID-19 started wreaking havoc around the world, Travel Capitalist Ventures had to pivot quickly. The venture capital firm invests in fast-growing companies in the travel industry, one of the sectors worst hit by the pandemic. To mitigate the impact on its operations, it had to make rapid changes and communicate them with staff, partners, co-investors, and companies it invests in.
The firm also needed to complete investments already underway, making it even more critical that their plans and direction were communicated clearly.
“We had to share advice during the barrage of tough decisions that we had to make on every call, to authorize and record key shareholder approvals, share our individual experiences from outside the office, and support our founders, management teams, and their staff,” says Founding Partner Abrar Ahmad.
Minimizing Disruption
Using BlueJeans Meetings, Ahmad’s team quickly shifted to virtual investment pitches and stepped up their communication with key stakeholders. It helped that before the pandemic, they were already using the video conferencing platform for their daily meetings.
Spread across five countries, the team members have been collaborating mostly virtually via BlueJeans. This helped them quickly get up to speed and continue to attract capital and fund companies despite the crisis. They had more engaging conversations throughout their investment process, thanks to the quality of the audio and video.
“The last thing we needed to worry about were technical issues, connectivity problems, enabling new features, and a slow communication platform when every business metric was falling off a cliff,” says Ahmad.
He found BlueJeans’ Personal Meeting option especially handy because he needed to be available during the most critical moments of the pandemic. Personal Meetings are permanent virtual rooms that allow users to get on a call anytime.
“And the proprietary BlueJeans Meetings with Dolby Voice ensures crystal-clear audio and minimizes having to repeat ourselves. It reduces the choppiness and ‘robot voice’ when attendee bandwidth fluctuates, and filters background noise,” says Ahmad.
He likes how in every meeting, especially during investment pitches or calls with investors, participants can deliver their message with clarity and good intonation. “Attendees would repeatedly comment about how clear our calls are, which was one of our key reasons for choosing BlueJeans.”
Enabling Diverse Uses
But what impresses Ahmad the most is BlueJeans’ ability to support every device, location, bandwidth, and platform via browser or mobile device.
“Our use cases significantly vary, and we have to account for apps that are allowed within a country’s firewall, how much bandwidth is available, and the types of devices used,” he says.
“BlueJeans allows us to sail through these hurdles. The audio and video quality, even in a low-bandwidth mode, ensures clear calls and discussions in a way that other providers can’t support.”
He adds that Travel Capitalist’s return on investment in BlueJeans Meetings speaks for itself. “It’s in the time we’ve saved from traveling, the frustration-free experience when discussing sensitive pre- or post-investment company matters, and the opportunity cost savings from having our partners and co-investors easily connect, discuss matters, and move on.”
And as demands for documentation and compliance increase in a post-pandemic investment world, Ahmad is confident his team can handle them with ease using BlueJeans.
“As COVID-19 wanes, fingers crossed, BlueJeans allows us to maintain a level of efficiency and productivity that our team members are used to, whether they work virtually or in the office,” he says. “It will continue to be a key part of our day-to-day use going forward.”
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About the Author
Sharni Medina is the Director of Customer Marketing at BlueJeans Network, where she is responsible for sharing the voice of customers through customer-driven content and supporting business reference needs. Prior to joining BlueJeans, Sharni worked at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, leading their customer advocacy and referencing organization. Sharni holds degrees in Education and Physical Education from the University of Alberta and a Masters in Sport Management from the University of San Francisco. Outside of the office, Sharni enjoys spending time with her family and traveling.
