Jean-Christophe: Bringing Asynchronous One-to-Many Video Communication to the Workplace

We bring asynchronous one-to-many video communication to the workplace.

We are revolutionizing the way businesses share information across the organization and with the clients by replacing lengthy emails and meetings with asynchronous video communication.

Berrycast allows you to record easy video communications instantly for your team members, clients, and customers to view on their time and at their own pace to respond to if desired.

This allows you to create more consistent communication, faster collaboration, and improve overall productivity.

Tell us about yourself?

I did my Bachelors degree in Finance and then worked in sales for about 4 years. I then started my first startup called DressYou, a fashion marketplace, in November 2016. It was launched in Montreal, funded by Anges Québec.

DressYou allowed users to become fashion influencers and create an Instagram-like profile where users had the option to link directly to their favorite products and make affiliate sales.

We believe that everyone is inherently beautiful. We aspired to change the way people shop for fashion and redefine beauty standards, allowing everyone to become the inspiration to make others feel beautiful.

DressYou was acquired by Openmind, a lab that launches SaaS products focused on improving productivity, in 2020. One of these tools is Berrycast, and after the acquisition, I took the responsibility of CEO.

If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

Actually two things:

Hire a great team at the beginning. If you’re not spending at least half your time hiring, you’re already on the road to failure. As an entrepreneur if you avoid this responsibility, it always comes back to bite later. So why delay?

Begin by setting the “The Growth Flywheel” framework in place to focus on key areas: demand generation, client acquisition, lifetime value optimization, and retention & referral. Focus on building a growth momentum by keeping your customers at the center of growth.

What problem does your business solve?

In any organization, you always need two schedules to line up in order to pass important information whether you are talking with a colleague, client, or customer. We call it synchronous communication. A video meeting is an example of synchronous communication.

But synchronous communication fails so often because everyone has a busy schedule and so much time is wasted in lost productivity with poorly planned agendas and the like.

We are here to change that mindset, making people more productive and collaborative without the need to align schedules and meet unnecessarily. We have built a product designed specifically for asynchronous communication.

Berrycast’s asynchronous communication solutions allow you to address a number of issues, creating less meetings, eliminating misunderstandings, reducing constant interruptions, preventing wasted time and misplaced priorities, and establishing personal touch.

Now with Berrycast:

• You can save a ton of time by skipping unproductive meetings. Simply record your thoughts and share them quickly with colleagues. Give them time to think about what you’ve asked and offer them a chance to respond thoughtfully rather than instantly blurting it out.
• You can greatly improve the ability to communicate with a remote team, especially with members in multiple time zones.
• Having a record of the communication is like a living document. It becomes immediate documentation that can be referenced indefinitely, unlike in-person discussions where you often need to take notes.
• Fewer interruptions enable deep work and focus. When team members can respond when they have time, they can be more focused on their work and not get distracted by incoming requests.

What is the inspiration behind your business?

Helping fellow small business owners. Give them the tools to boost their productivity. One other main inspiration for starting my own business is my entrepreneurial side. There are also successful people whom I admired in my entrepreneurial journey. I have a strong desire to succeed and build a great business.

What is your magic sauce?

Our tool empowers anyone at any skill level to easily create screencast/video messages recorded that are instantly available in the cloud to be shared (regardless of the duration). Berrycast also offers custom branding, so customers can brand their video and share it with the world (including their own domain name).

What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?

Berrycast will become a default asynchronous communication solution used by organizations within five years. We plan to focus on integrating Berrycast with leading technologies available in three categories – Systems of Engagement, System of Records, and Systems of Decision.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

Having too many personas. In the beginning, it makes it hard to focus. Berrycast is a tool that meets the needs of several personas, including teachers, doctors, managers, designers, marketing agencies, sales, human resources, customer service—really, anyone. The need to choose a more specific niche in which to establish ourselves was a good challenge.

How do people get involved/buy into your vision?

By asking my team to help in creating it. I aim to create an environment where people feel comfortable with testing, testing, and failing. In the end, it’s a team’s work. They need to feel and be a part of the vision.