Today we are speaking with Nate Macleitch, the CEO of QuickBlox.
First of all tell us about your company, and how you became involved ?
QuickBlox is a communication-platform-as-a-service (CPaaS) provider, which basically means we provide the infrastructure and software needed to add real-time communication features to business apps and websites.
I became the sole CEO in 2018 and have been committed to improving our product. Along with chat and instant messaging, our software also enables video calling, multiparty video conferencing, and we recently launched a plugin teleconsultation app.
What have been some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced as CEO
Well, the last few years have certainly proved to be an interesting time as a CEO.
First, Covid-19 had a significant impact. Like many businesses we were forced to move to a remote working model, but our team adjusted remarkably well. While we lost a few customers, because we’re in the business of providing remote digital communication, we also experienced an unprecedented interest in our product.
More recently we’ve been affected by the devastating war in the Ukraine. My development team was based in the eastern city of Kharkiv. Thankfully they have all relocated to safe locations in the western part of the country or abroad. I’m truly amazed by their resilience.
Fortunately, throughout this conflict our services remained unaffected. The Covid-19 lock down had already prepared my team to work effectively from remote locations, and because of robust company procedures and working closely with our customers to host their communication applications on premise and with cloud service providers (like those operated by AWS) their applications remain unaffected.
How does your company innovate?
Serving clients from diverse industries including healthcare, finance, and ecommerce has encouraged innovation. Needing to meet their distinct business use cases has forced us to adapt our product.
For example, during the height of Covid-19 we were inundated with requests from healthcare providers for white label ready solutions. Consequently, my development team innovated a new app called Q-Consultation, which provides a virtual meeting room and teleconsultation for remote doctor-patient communication. It’s now being trialed by several healthcare providers in the United States and Canada.
Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?
Sure. Uncertainty caused by the pandemic and war brought difficult choices to the fore, such as where to invest in resources and how best to support staff displaced by warfare. The main lesson learned was the importance of involving my core team in the decision-making process. Certainly I don’t shirk from my responsibility for making tough decisions, but I’ve crafted a collaborative work culture where I value the input of key team members. We navigated these difficult situations together.
What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to navigate these crisis?
We also rely on collaborative tools like slack, trello boards, and Jira, which allows our remote workforce to stay connected and engaged in easy communication. As previously mentioned, my management style involves including the views of trusted team members.
Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?
The CPaaS market has grown in recent years with lots of changes in the market. My strategy for staying in the game is to focus on key use cases and delivering both tools like SDKs and APIs, and ready solutions for companies to customize Use of telemedicine part-driven by Covid is only the start of communication innovation in healthcare. I think our ability to innovate to meet changing market demands puts us in a strong position. While we continue to invest in a communication platform, our new Q-Consultation app is gaining in momentum.
Your final thoughts
While difficult situations can prove stressful at the time, they can also bring new opportunities as well. While I carry a lot of responsibility as a CEO, QuickBlox is a collaborative endeavor and we’ve achieved the success we have due to the hard work, dedication, and remarkable resilience of the whole team.
- Spokesperson: Nate Macleitch
- Company: QuickBlox
- Website link: https://quickblox.com/