Realtime Interview with Peter Csathy at SightSpeed
Yesterday I had the pleasure of chatting with Peter Csathy. Peter's the CEO of SightSpeed. We talked about VoIP, video, and SightSpeed's fascinating software offering. I'd like to share our conversation with you.
The first thing that's important to acknowledge has to do with Peter "drinking his own kool-aid," which I'll mention again later. We used SightSpeed to share a video conversation for this interview. This is the second time I've done an interview using SightSpeed, and in both cases, it's been an awesome collaboration tool.
Background on Peter (directly from the SightSpeed web site)
Peter is CEO of SightSpeed and is a digital media veteran. Csathy previously served as president and COO of Musicmatch, Inc., where he was responsible for driving the company's distribution and content strategies, managing strategic partnerships, and overseeing the company's business development, sales, legal and finance activities. Yahoo! acquired Musicmatch in 2004.
Prior to Musicmatch, Csathy served as COO of eNow, Inc., a subscription-based technology company delivering breaking news and information. Csathy also previously served as a Senior Vice President at Universal Studios and held executive positions at New Line Cinema and Savoy Pictures. In these roles, and among other things, Csathy drove strategic distribution, marketing and technology partnerships, international joint ventures, and acquisitions.
Csathy received his J.D. from the Harvard Law School, and his B.A., summa cum laude, in political science from the University of Minnesota.
Framework
Rather than try to explain the framework here, let me share a quick demo. Please keep in mind that the demo you'll see here is completely impromptu. Using the SightSpeed software, I quickly created a video blog post link for demonstration purposes. You get me in jeans and t-shirt after a very long day. It's less than one minute in length. Just a glimpse of one SightSpeed feature.
View the brief demo
Note: Under the plan I recorded this, it will time out and vanish after 30 days.
Peter and I used SightSpeed to chat from his home office to mine using consumer Internet technologies. We were both on wireless local networks.
Ken: I’ve used SightSpeed for an online interview and explored a little bit. You offer a pretty full feature set: 1-to-1 video calling, Voice Calling, Multiparty conference calling, and video mail or blog posting. Between the free and Pro Service plan, there’s a pretty complete suite. Who do you see as the primary target audience? How do you see SightSpeed fitting differently into a large enterprise business as opposed to the small business entrepreneur?
Peter: We're primarily consumer focused as a company. You'll see on our web site that all out messaging is very consumer focused. We know that consumers will take their home solutions in to work. We hope they will with ours, and we're finding that they are indeed taking SightSpeed to work. But even with that, we really don’t target enterprise business. We do know that about 30% of our user base are small business owners. We hear all the time how they've tried other things and haven't been satisfied. We deliver the best in video and VoIP. Word of mouth spreads our reputation. Our feature set and ease of use are things we hear about constantly from these users.
Some of our features like multiparty video conference are incredibly popular. With our new Mac client, out cross-platform capability is another big benefit for many users. Free accounts get unlimited voice and video calls. Pro service plan subscribers get extended storage for video mail and unlimited multiparty voice and video calling. Our subscribers feel it's a real bargain. With the paid one year subscription they get a webcam too.
On the larger enterprise side, I think we have two stories that apply in some fashion. Our distribution model is the same as the one we used at Musicmatch. We sell directly to consumer and we work through 3rd party partners like Creative Labs. They're the #1 webcam seller worldwide. It's just coming to fruition now, but SightSpeed is being bundled in every SKU they sell. That's just starting to hit the distribution channel. We see this as a huge potential. They can message to their customers any way they like. The bottom line for us is that webcam purchasers get immediate exposure to a free account using SightSpeed. We find people who buy webcams want to use them immediatly.
From another view, there are some very large companies, media companies for example, that are in talks right now. Many of these large company interests come from traveling teams. Road warriors permeate every business sector today. We offer a great tool for internal use. They use it to keep team together through multiparty video calling. We give the cost effective communications for a widely dispersed work team. As companies look for ways new ways to collaborate, we think we give them a tool that works well for road warriors and geographically dispersed work teams.
Ken: Who do you see as the competition? I think there’s clearly Skype with video calling as one competitive offering.
Peter: Obviously Skype is one competitor. We continually draw parallels between the model I used at Musicmatch and SightSpeed. We use the same sort of upsell approach and the same techniques in distribution. For us, what's really the same is the similar story about being best in class. In some ways Yahoo, MSN, AOL. - all the 800 pound gorillas are potential competitors. More importantly, they're our potential partners. I can see fabulous partnering opportunities with them.
We announced a partnership with Sonic Solutions at VON. They've got the best of breed media tool in Easy CD Creator with the Roxio brand.
We believe our best in class services will turn some of our potential competitors into partners.
Ken: What about protocols? I think I saw a reference that you use a proprietary video algorithm? In my experience, whatever you’re using works very well, but can you or do you plan on interoperating in any standards-based protocols like SIP or H.323 for voice, video or both?
Peter: For VoIP, we're moving toward SIP based. Everyone is and SIP is going to be key in the VoIP space. Our video codec is a proprietary approach. We believe in the long run that interoperability is the key for everyone. Codecs can be negotiated on the fly and it's a matter of developing a framework that allows negotiation and using the best available methods.
Ken: There’s one feature that I wonder about. If it’s in here, I just haven’t seen it. What about application sharing? Is that something you’re planning for? And will you use established standards like T.120 for that?
Peter: Surveys show that 90% of the people who buy webcams want video communication and voice calling. And they want them together. We certainly could integrate application sharing and whiteboarding into SightSpeed. We may well do that at some point. Application sharing probably has more value than whiteboarding. In some ways, those are corporate tools, and right now as a small company, our focus is still the consumer market. Business users will want the ability to share business applications, and that could drive us to incorporate those features as demand rises and our user base grows.
Ken: Are you getting any pushback from corporate environments? I’m thinking those companies with more than 2-300 employees who are concerned about standards-based solutions and corporate network security.
Peter: I wouldn't necessarily call it pushback. There's some reluctance here and there, but there are also a lot of "aha moments." I looked in on a VoIP session at CES recently. They were talking about an executive speaking at a big conference, but unable to get there due to travel delays. The talk and buzz was all about being able to make a video call in to the conference and be "there" to speak without actually being there. That's the kind of new solution we enable.
As a company we see the mobile opportunity being huge. Huge for our company and for the growth of the technology. We have a very efficient video codec. If you've looked at the older H.320 video and the codecs used, they weren't very efficient. With our extremely efficient codec one day soon you'll see a mobile application of SightSpeed. Imagine being able to record and post video from your mobile device. Even something like video calling could be on the horizon. With advances in mobile devices and the spread of wireless broadband networks, we see a very green field for opportunities.
In the enterprise setting our solutions can do some interesting things with community. Say for example, a media company represents an artist and the artist has a fan club. The artist can now easily produce a video vignette for sending to their fan base via email or blog posting. Studies show the response rate for that sort of personalized or specialized email is much higher than the traditional newsletter.
Political messaging presents another opportunity. Candidates could easily record a message and share it with their constituents.
The viral nature of video is untapped in the broad Internet user base. SightSpeed gives the home user production studio capacity when it comes to easily producing a video. They can simply record and post. Or email. The things can be done related to a community are wide open for discovery. User enthusiasm and the viral nature of sharing are the things we think will bring us continued success.
Ken: One of the coolest features is the recording of video mail or blogs, but it’s very time constrained. Any thoughts on expanding the time limitations to say 15 minute recording? You’ve got a tool that could change the face of blogging and webcasting almost immediately. How do you plan on leveraging that?
Peter: Right now our model is that all users can record video for email or blog use. Paid subscribers get increased capacity and storage time. I've thought a little about the ability to record much longer sessions and providing hosted storage online. We have to think about that some more. We're still a small company and growing. We'll watch what our users want.Ken: Well you've been getting plenty of good press lately. Given the obvious success, has there been interest from unexpected quarters - other innovative startups, or places you didn't anticipate the interest. I guess, the hot new buzzword this month is mashup. Any new surprising mashups with other companies on the horizon?
Peter: We've been on the radar screens of a number of very big companies. We've been known for quite some time for great technology. We're in an interesting space that's scrutinized closely. Everyone watches convergence. I'd say that among both big and small companies we've had conversations and interest from what I'll call the usual suspects. Times have changed in last year. Even in the past several months our numbers have grown substantially. We've got new distribution deals. There are new proactive calls from interested parties every week. For a small company we feel like we're recognized by wide swath of enterprises because we do what we do very well.
Ken: What about any other thoughts you'd like to share in conclusion?
Peter: One point I'd like to make is that I "drink my own kool-aid." SightSpeed is a Berkeley-based company, but my family and I live in the San Diego area. We love it here and have no wish to move. There are a number of personal and family reasons to be remote. I use SightSpeed every day as part of my. Sure I make trips to the office all the time, but I run the company using SightSpeed daily for hours at a time working with our team on all sorts of ideas. It's our primary communications tool.
I think there's a transformative nature to the underlying technology that people will adjust to and create. There are some unique uses of our solution that aren't obvious. Last week we were featured inside a CBS evening news story about telemedicine. In this application the doctor takes calls on the receiving end. Parents can call in to show and describe an ailment for their children. For small children a trip to the doctor can be very disruptive. For single parent families, or those where both parents work, just rearranging the day to take a child to the doctor can be a challenge. Rather than trek to office, why not bring up a video call for consultation? This is obviously not something to use for emergency care, but for delivery of routine healthcare and offering instructions for off-the-shelf remedies and home healthcare of a child, it's a very moving concept. It's one that's starting to take hold.
We also help provide a strong partnership with the hearing impaired community. We know we're unique in that regard. Many video applications in use today are capable of 15 frames per second. Our video codec reliably delivers 30 frames per second video. That quality provides the fluidity of motion required to allow effective signing over SightSpeed. We think this brings a powerful tool to the hearing impaired community. Through service partnerships, users can reach out from home, over the computer through operators to assist this user community in obtaining services previously available over the phone. I guess one simple example would be an operator assisted service to allow hearing impaired individuals to order a pizza online.
Wrap up from Ken
One of the things I appreciated most about my interview with Peter was his candor about where he sees their target audience today. He makes no bones about focusing on consumers. He knows there's a void to fill in corporate networks, but he makes no pretentious claims about having a cure-all solution that will end business woes. I'd say he seems satisfied in knowing he has a solid product and willing to let it begin permeating business under its own steam. As consumers buy webcams, they'll try SightSpeed and the user base will grow naturally.
I have to say that's not a bad approach. I signed up for the free account and after a few uses, I'm hooked and promised Peter he'll see me as a paid subscriber before the week is out. We humans are visual, social creatures. The need for facial expressions and body language is something we're born with. Think of how many times you've been involved in an email or online disagreement all caused by lack of facial expression or body language. Emoticons often cause more harm because they aren't well understood or adopted. :-) The technologies we use are on the cusp of an evolutionary leap. Audio and video email will easily replace text email if the tools are available and easy to use. SightSpeed gives us a glimpse of those tools.
I've never been a fan of video conferencing on a PC. Never. That's in the past. The widespread availability of broadband has made it a real possibility rather than a pipe dream. Broadband isn't ubiquitous yet. That's still a ways off, but we're moving in that direction. New technologies like WiMax can help. As a road warrior much of the time, I've been one of those people who had a webcam in his bag and never took it out. That's changed. SightSpeed's ease of setup, ease of use, and high quality made a believer out of me. And if you want to try it out, all you need is a webcam and the motivation to give it a try.
These evolving technologies, whether they be peer-to-peer voice, presence monitoring or video collaboration are all new tools to augment existing business processes. They aren't going to change the face of business overnight. They're examples of tools that will creep into our daily lives and become part of what we do - at home, at work and at play. This is the real foundation of what people so often call Web 2.0. It's about tools and applications that change how we communicate in subtle ways. Subtle changes individually that change the direction of large corporations over time. Each minute change has an impact. There's a saying that a butterfly's wings beating on one side of the world cause a hurricane on the other side. Subtle change is something we embrace into our work patterns and lifestyles. When subtle changes aggregate, but change is the end result.
Disclaimer: As an extended part of our talk, Peter and I brainstormed a couple of interesting ideas for ways to extend the use of SightSpeed to gain visibility in the marketplace. In particular we talked about some telemedicine related ideas. He asked if I'd be willing to talk further about some of those ideas, and I agreed to do so. I think it's important that I disclose I saw some potential that I'm willing to help promote. If it does some good for SightSpeed, that's a good thing. I think I owe it to readers to admit I've been that favorably impressed with what I've seen.
As with every interview I do, any errors in this writeup are mine, and not due to any oversight or ommission on Peter's part.
I'd like to thank Andy Abramson for helping facilitate the opportunity to chat with Peter. Thanks again to Brooke in Andy's office at Comunicano, Inc. for all her logistics help. I'm sure as things progress we'll talk with several of Andy's client partners again. They're definitely a group to watch closely.
Our next interview coming up here will be with Jeff Hicks from NetIQ.
If you find these interviews useful or helpful, or there's someone in particular (either an individual or a company) that you'd like to read or hear an interview with, please drop me a note.
For archival and reference purposes, a PDF copy of this interview write-up will also be available in the Realtime VoIP Community Reading Room.
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