Bubbles

Bubbles, legally known as VanGoux Inc., operates a platform focused on improving team productivity through asynchronous collaboration and AI-powered meeting tools. The company was founded by Tom Medema, who currently serves as the CEO. Medema's journey as a self-taught software engineer began at age 10, and he sold his first company while still in high school. His experience as a former CTO, where he scaled a remote engineering team from one to 150 people, exposed the challenges of remote work and inspired the creation of Bubbles. This background, combined with a master's degree in international economics and business, informs the company's direction.

The business offers a solution for the prevalent issue of excessive and unproductive meetings in a remote or hybrid work environment. Its core product functions as both an AI meeting notetaker and an asynchronous video collaboration tool. The platform integrates with common meeting software like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, allowing an AI assistant to join calls to record, transcribe, and summarize discussions. This process generates automated action items assigned to specific participants, providing a clear record of responsibilities post-meeting. All recordings and notes are stored in a centralized, shareable workspace.

Beyond live meetings, the platform champions asynchronous communication to reduce the need for calls altogether. Users can create screen and camera recordings, capture full-page screenshots, and annotate them with threaded video, audio, or text comments. This functionality allows teams to review designs, provide feedback, and resolve questions without scheduling a live session. The company targets a broad market of teams looking to enhance productivity, including managers, marketers, and designers. Revenue is generated through a subscription-based model. Bubbles offers a free basic plan, a pro plan with more advanced features for a monthly per-user fee, and an enterprise plan with enhanced administrative controls and analytics. In May 2022, the company secured $8.5 million in a seed funding round from investors including Khosla Ventures, Craft Ventures, and Bain Capital.

Keywords: asynchronous collaboration, AI meeting notetaker, video messaging, screen recording, team productivity, remote work tools, meeting transcription, action item tracking, contextual feedback, workflow automation, video annotation, collaboration platform, digital workspace, team alignment, meeting summaries, async communication, productivity software, Tom Medema, VanGoux Inc., virtual meeting assistant