[TLDR] Two mission aligned companies team up to lean into the opportunity to bring meaningful connections and matchmaking to Zoom Breakout Rooms. (To request early access to twine for Zoom, join the waitlist here)

Here at twine, we have long been impressed with the team and products over at Glimpse, particularly with what they’ve been able to build on Zoom (more on this to follow!).

If you don’t know Glimpse’s story, it’s pretty compelling (read post from Helena, Glimpse's CEO here).  The founders, Helena and Brian, dropped out of Duke two years ago to build software to tackle the loneliness epidemic.  They went through Y Combinator, and raised some seed money from Maven Ventures (who were one of the first investors in Zoom) and added some great advisors like Josh Elman.  

Glimpse’s first product looked very much like twine’s; it was a virtual roulette style networking experience that used the power of software to make it easy to meet new people online.  While twine focused on the enterprise from day one, Glimpse’s initial use cases centered around providing  networking and social interactions for university students.

When the pandemic hit, Glimpse saw an instant surge of demand from both events who were being forced to go virtual, and businesses who found themselves suddenly working remotely.

(if this story sounds a lot like twine’s, yes, you have been paying attention.  Our mission, trajectories, journey, and learnings have been eerily similar).

Moving decisively, Glimpse decided to go all in on Zoom’s nascent ecosystem.  Like twine, they believed remote work to be a long term, durable trend that was creating the need for a new category of workforce connectivity software, and they wanted to take their product to where the work was happening - Zoom.  

Leveraging their investors' connections, they were able to work closely with Zoom to build the necessary APIs to enable thoughtful matchmaking, networking, and virtual watercooler experiences - all within Zoom.  This app is now called twine for Zoom.  

“We believe that the Glimpse team has managed to build on Zoom will be the de facto way that Zoom customers will run breakout rooms from here on out.  This Zoom app is that powerful.” - Lawrence Coburn, CEO, twine

Helena first reached out to me on Twitter in October of 2021 to compare notes.  We immediately hit it off, and were struck by how closely our visions aligned.  For both of our companies, B2B was simply a wedge in order to get our software out to a world that we feel needs more connectivity and common ground.  By the end of our first call, we were joking about teaming up.

Beyond mission alignment, there were a few things that stuck out about how these two companies might fit together.  While the team at twine were B2B veterans who understood things like go to market, pricing, and enterprise readiness, the team at Glimpse were growth hackers, experts at leveraging consumer like growth tactics.  While twine had focused on building a compelling, destination service, Glimpse had gone deeper with Zoom than just about anyone else.  Our teams complement each other in the most important ways, making us a stronger team together.

So what happens now?  Effective immediately, twine and Glimpse are now one company.

Shuffle by Glimpse is now twine for Zoom. We are also taking over their destination app at joinglimpse.com, and their under the hood matchmaking prowess.  Helena and Brian are staying onboard indefinitely as consultants, and Sam, Oli, and Austin from the Glimpse team are coming across to join forces with us.

For twine, this is an opportunity to turbocharge our mission of fostering healthier teams, one conversation at a time.  We believe that employee connectivity and belonging in a remote work environment is a problem waiting to be solved, and the solution needs to start where a lot of work is getting done. In Zoom.

Glimpse and twine have been kindred spirits for a long time, tackling the same problem from different angles.  We are thrilled to take up the torch from Helena and Brian, and to welcome Sam, Austin, and Oli to team twine.  

There is an important category of software waiting to be built that will help preserve company culture, employee camaraderie, and retention in the age of remote work.  With the acquisition of Glimpse, we believe we are well positioned to serve the camaraderie and belonging needs of any company that is relying on remote work.

If you would like to join the waitlist for our new Zoom app, twine for Zoom, please sign up here.

Click here for the press release.

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Lawrence Coburn is the CEO & Co-Founder at twine.