Brainshark was founded in 1999 with one vision: to transform the way businesspeople create and share content. The goal was to democratize the use of multimedia, making it possible for anyone, unencumbered by time, cost or technical barriers, to produce powerful business communications. By making it easy to create an immersive, interactive communications experience including audio and visual components, Brainshark was dedicated to helping organizations improve the reach and results of their messages.
From this vision, the Brainshark platform was born – enabling the average businessperson with only basic tools, like PowerPoint and the phone, to add their voice to static content and create high-impact, video presentations. Before the ideas of user-generated content, software-as-a-service and online video became standard practice, Brainshark was already pioneering these concepts to enhance business communications.
Initially, Brainshark began by addressing a pressing need in the corporate training industry. Organizations were spending months of time and tens of thousands of dollars in computer-based course development. Brainshark Founder and CEO Joe Gustafson knew he could provide a better way, by allowing organizations to empower their subject matter experts to create eLearning content within minutes…at a fraction of the previous cost.
Brainshark soon encountered a groundswell of demand from other business areas that needed to rapidly create, share and track their business communications. Business professionals from sales, marketing, channels and HR functions soon began using Brainshark to create content that their audiences could consume at their convenience – anytime, anywhere and from any device.
Between 1999 and 2005, Brainshark raised $23 million in venture capital, began turning a profit in 2006 and has continued to grow rapidly to this day. Brainshark customers come from industries such as financial services, insurance, technology, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, life sciences, retail and others. And through its Non-Profit Grant Program launched in 2008, Brainshark awards free software licenses to qualifying non-profit organizations on a quarterly basis.
Over the years, Brainshark has developed and launched a comprehensive product portfolio, including the flagship Brainshark Presentations™ solution and advanced enterprise applications such as Rapid Learning™ for learning management and Trusted Networks for channel communications. Brainshark also provides a suite of Professional Services to enable customers to maximize the value of their investment in Brainshark solutions. Brainshark also addresses the needs of individuals and small businesses with the myBrainshark free solution launched in 2009, and the myBrainshark Pro Series launched in 2010.
Brainshark has remained true to its original vision. The company continues to dedicate itself to providing a superior communications experience for its customers – having invested more than 300 person-years in the development of its products and the underlying Brainshark CST Platform™, plus millions of dollars in its secure, reliable and scalable Cloud Computing Infrastructure.
Starting from a vision and just one customer in 1999, Brainshark is proud to now provide its unique service to thousands of organizations of all sizes and industries including a third of the Fortune 100. Currently, throughout the world, there is a Brainshark on demand video presentation created every 3 minutes and viewed every 2.5 seconds. Organizations report using Brainshark to cut training time in half, boost lead generation results by up to five times, and dramatically reduce their carbon emissions impact through decreased travel. In addition, customers have slashed previous communication costs, including travel, print and web conferencing, by up to 95 percent.
Today, Brainshark is focused on enabling the delivery of high-quality video presentation content to an increasingly untethered world. With smartphones outpacing PCs and the tablet market exploding, Brainshark Mobile, including the Brainshark App for iPad/iPhone and Android, are ideally suited for on-the-go video content consumption. And the SlideShark App for iPad users, introduced to rave reviews, has made it possible to view and show PowerPoints properly on the iPad. Brainshark remains committed to meeting and anticipating the needs of both online and mobile users, and helping deliver superior business communications.