Investing in Developers — Zoom Developer Summit and Competition 2020

Summary

Zoom launched the Zoom Marketplace Competition for developers creating applications on the Zoom platform. Open to for-profit organizations with less than $10M in prior funding, the competition offers a selected winner up to $2 million in potential investment. Finalists pitch their proposals to venture partners from Emergence, Horizons Ventures, Maven Ventures, and Sequoia. In addition to capital, the winner receives advisory sessions with Zoom product experts, priority platform support, a DTEN D7 whiteboard, and multiple three-year software licenses. Submissions require explicit details regarding problem definition, customer demographics, traction, revenue models, competitive analysis, and team credentials ahead of the March 31st, 2020 deadline.

Context

Zoom sought to expand its platform reach, grow its user base, and add value-producing applications for Zoom customers by incentivizing external developers.

Approach / What changed

Zoom organized the Zoom Marketplace Competition, offering up to $2 million in funding, product mentorship, priority technical support, hardware, and Zoom licenses to eligible startups pitching applications built on the Zoom platform.

Takeaways

• Eligibility is restricted to for-profit organizations that have raised less than $10M in prior funding.
• Finalists pitch directly to venture partners from Emergence, Horizons Ventures, Maven Ventures, and Sequoia.
• The winning submission receives up to $2 million in funding alongside advisory sessions, priority development support, a DTEN D7 55-inch whiteboard with a 3-year Zoom Rooms license, and 10 Zoom Pro licenses for 3 years.

Related reading

• Zoom · Jan 22, 2020

  Behind the Curtain: App Publishing Requests

  Zoom App Marketplace reviews App Publishing Requests to enable broad distribution of applications across all Zoom accounts. During the initial review stage, marketplace specialists evaluate submission metadata, including descriptive text, media assets, functional documentation, and requested scopes to verify that applications do not access unnecessary user information. Reviewers then perform a functional assessment by executing the developer-provided test plan using supplied test accounts and credentials. When issues occur, reviewers deliver feedback through review notes, requiring developers to resolve the problems and resubmit their app to trigger a re-review cycle. Developers can validate production readiness prior to public submission through account-level local testing or by creating a Publishable URL sharing request for external testing.

  Abraham Queen

• Zoom · Feb 14, 2020

  What’s New and What’s Coming for Zoom Marketplace in 2020?