This week's startup wants to bring back the vibrancy of the office: from water cooler chats to productive white-boarding sessions.
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โพ The Elevator Pitch:
Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Salesforce, Slack, Twitter are just a few of the many companies switching to permanent work from home as the sun sets on the COVID pandemic. Employee productivity is sky high, but morale is in the dumps.
Branch (branch.gg) is building an enterprise-first virtual office. Built by Gen Z gamers, they've mastered the art of gamification to create a very viral, new paradigm for office space. They're bringing in spatial technology, animations, and powerful productivity tools to create a world, dedicated to work.
๐ย The Drop Down
Site:https://www.branch.gg/
Founded:ย 2020
Stage:ย Seed ($1.5M raised)
Tech trend:ย Remote Work
Traction: More than 500 companies on their waitlist, 60% 30-day retention rate, Average user session is 12 hours ๐คฏ, Used for corporate events like streaming Election Day watch parties
Team: High school dropouts, Minecraft pros with $kโs of sales
Dayton Mills - Co-Founder & CEO
Kai Micah Mills - Co-Founder
๐ Our analysis
๐ช Stellar Product Positioning & Adoption
With everything from whiteboards to laser pointers to screensharing, Branch focuses on building the right tools for an enterprise virtual HQ, rather than building for the masses. They even bring back the fun aspects of the office, like decorating your desk, or playing a virtual game of pool. With 12-hour user sessions and a 60% 30-day retention, Branch does an incredible job of being another "Slack" where it can sit passively on desktops, but still be a super engaging app.๐ง Crazy Founders
When the phrase "born to be entrepreneurs" is thrown around, you usually don't think of young teenagers. Kai & Dayton started at the ripe age of 15 to get deep in the tech space. They've become masters of the virtual world, building Minecraft servers & selling gamers for thousands of dollars a month. Dayton even tried to create his own game studio at just 13. These two are crazy, committed to their craft, and driven to succeed.๐จโ๐จโ๐ฆโ๐ฆ Crowded Space Spatialized video chat platforms are popping up everywhere. We even featured Varty a few months back. While Branch is finding early success and traction in the enterprise ecosystem, we're excited to see how they maintain that advantage as their competitors also vie for the spot of The Virtual HQ.
๐ค Get involved with Branch
Create your own branch
See their article on TechCrunch
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