Today we’d like to introduce you to Steven Blom.
Steven, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
After going through a rough time in 2007, I came to believe that first and foremost people, deep down inside, want to be connected to themselves and others. This is more important than anything else and all major positive experiences come from being connected.
Looking through that lens I saw that business meetings, presentations and events lack the connection between e.g. the person on stage and the audience. When there is a teacher in front of a classroom the students refrain from asking questions because they are afraid to make a mistake. Later on in life, the employees do not give feedback at a quarterly meeting with the CEO because they are worried about their job.
We decided to empower people to speak up and be heard during events and started the company sendsteps.com in 2008 and we are now one of the global leaders in Audience Response Solutions.
We were founded in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and 2.5 years ago opened an office in Beverly Hills, CA and count now corporations like T-Mobile, Northrop Grumman, PwC and many other Fortune 500 companies as our customers.
Has it been a smooth road?
The road has been an amazing one with wonderful encounters and great setbacks. 😉
We started just with the two of us with almost zero experience in the field of internet technology and therefore we learned a lot by making many ‘mistakes’. However, standing up one more time than falling down is what brings you a step further and now it goes very well.
We are now growing rapidly and more and more Fortune 500 customers are signing up each day. We empower their employees to speak up during their meetings and presentations and that brings positive change throughout their corporations which in itself affects society.
We truly believe that we can change the world; one meeting at a time.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Sendsteps. Tell us more about the business.
We allow employees to ask questions and vote with their mobile phone (anonymously) during events, meetings and presentations. We supply an audience response system and the unique thing we’ve built is a PowerPoint add-in software that enables the speaker on stage to turn the monologue into an engaging dialogue with the click of a button.
We do this in 50+ countries around the world and the culture of the organizations using it become more open, transparent and authentic to work in. People feel and are empowered when they experience that (executive) management takes their feedback into account when making decisions.
The experience that we are most proud of is that His Royal Holiness the Dalai Lama used Sendsteps to allow his audience to ask him questions at an event in the Netherlands.
Where do you see your industry going over the next 5-10 years? Any big shifts, changes, trends, etc?
We believe that in the next 5-10 years every organization will become more transparent and open and will need to empower their employees to speak up in order to stay ahead of the pack and be innovative. If they do not then they will not keep their employees because they can work anywhere, they will lose from their competition because they are not innovative enough and their culture will lack the passion and inspiration needed to thrive.
With Sendsteps we empower you to be your very best!
Contact Info:
- Address: 113 North San Vicente Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90211
- Website: https://www.sendsteps.com
- Phone: +1 (310) 510-6488
- Email: steven.blom@sendsteps.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sendsteps/
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Sendsteps/
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