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LOUISVILLE - After undergoing two name changes and redefining its business plan three times since its inception, Weband voice-conferencing company Raindance Communications Inc. has identified its niche. And with virtual meetings quickly picking up in popularity in the business world since Sept. 11, Raindance will likely remain Raindance for some time to come.
Logging more minutes
"2002 is going to be one of the most intense periods of growing the business," said Paul Berberian, chief executive officer of the Louisville-based company. He founded the company as Vstream in Boulder, which became Evoke Communications, which became Raindance. Berberian raised $116 million in venture capital, moved the company to Louisville and generated another $52 million when the company went public in 2000.
"Sept. 11 was a great wake-up call for the conferencing industry. After Sept. 11, there was a great upsurge in the business," he said. "In the long term, more businesses are going to see the importance of conferencing, not just the top companies in the United States."
Volume has climbed at Raindance since Sept. 11, when business air travel nosedived in response to the terrorist hijackings. Whereas the company billed 45.8 million conferencing minutes in the first quarter of 2001, 52.1 million minutes in the second quarter and 62 million minutes in the third quarter, Raindance logged more than 80 million minutes in the final quarter of 2001. Berberian said the company already logged more than 40 million minutes in January 2002 alone.
"Raindance has really shocked me with its growth rate, said Elliot Gold, president of Telespan Publishing Corp., a Calif.based market research company. He tracked a 40 percent increase in the use of teleconferencing services in the three days following Sept. 11, a usage spike that sustained itself for nearly the rest of the year.
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