Dialpad Offers Free Business Communications to Startups of Top-Tier VCs to Empower the Anywhere Worker Revolution & Kill the Desk Phone for Good

SAN FRANCISCO, June 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Dialpad today announced it's expanding its popular Dialpad Fast Start Program, offering 10 free Dialpad and UberConference by Dialpad seats to every startup funded by the country's top venture capital firms. Inspired by Dialpad CEO Craig Walker, a multi-time startup CEO who has repeatedly felt the pain of startup overhead costs, the expanded Dialpad Fast Start Program will accelerate innovation by helping founding teams connect from anywhere, using any device for voice, video, messaging and meetings. The free service, which can be deployed in minutes, eliminates the need for desk phones and telecom equipment, and instead lets startups connect with customers and colleagues from the day they're founded. They can then easily and cost-effectively scale their cloud-based communications tools as they grow.

Zumper, introduced to Dialpad through Andreessen Horowitz, participated in the Dialpad Fast Start Program. The company has grown its implementation by 4X and is currently enjoying a 50 percent overall savings on telephony costs. Zumper, which has a 30 percent remote workforce, deployed Dialpad in just 48 hours and currently averages 4,000 text messages per month.

GV and A16z have been quietly leading an investment revolution, looking for ways to help their portfolio companies avoid common startup pitfalls by enabling discounted access to the solutions of the VC firms' other portfolio companies. Dialpad, which allows every business to replace its traditional phone systems with Dialpad's cloud-based communications platform, has participated in this program since the company was funded, giving a limited number of free lifetime Dialpad licenses to fellow portfolio companies of the venture funds that are invested in Dialpad, namely GV (formerly known as Google Ventures), Andreessen Horowitz, Work-Bench, Softbank Capital and Felicis Ventures. Based on a desire to help more startups, Dialpad is dramatically expanding its program, making 10 lifetime UberConference by Dialpad seats available to the portfolio companies of dozens of VC firms, including Accel, Benchmark, IVP, Sequoia, DFJ, Kleiner Perkins, 500 Startups and many more (see below).

The expansion of the Dialpad Fast Start Program is in keeping with the company's commitment to spur innovation. While legacy communications vendors are still trying to sell startup companies thousands of dollars' worth of hardware and desk phones just to make a phone call, the Dialpad Fast Start Program will let 10 employees talk, text, and conference – from anywhere, using any device – all for free. Dialpad is the only company willing to provide a complete enterprise communication feature set to so many companies for free, enabling young companies to start building, marketing and selling their world-changing products of the future – without the cost and complexity of a hardware-based communications system.

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"Every startup we invest in knows that great communications between team members is crucial.  It goes without saying that these modern companies understand the value of building a connected company where employees can work from anywhere, at any time on any device, by taking advantage of modern communications tools like Dialpad and UberConference," said Wesley Chan of Felicis Ventures, which encourages its portfolio companies to use Dialpad to connect workers with voice, texting, video, conference calling, SMS and more on whatever device they prefer.

"At Zumper, our goal is to support employees with tools that free them to connect and collaborate from anywhere," said Brian Coyne, Head of Business Operations at Zumper, who was introduced to Dialpad through Andreessen Horowitz. "Thanks to Dialpad's cloud-based architecture, we had the platform up and running within 48 hours. We're saving an incredible 50 percent on telephony costs every month."

"We discovered Dialpad through its original Dialpad Fast Start Program," said Jager McConnell, CEO of Crunchbase. "Dialpad and other companies in the Felicis Ventures portfolio have been instrumental in scaling our business. The expansion of this program will empower every fast-moving startup aiming to build a flexible, cloud-based IT stack."

"Like most entrepreneurs, we founded Dialpad to solve a real-world problem with a very audacious goal," said Craig Walker, CEO of Dialpad. "In our case, it was to kill the desk phone and enable the age of the Anywhere Worker. But we remember what it was like in the beginning, trying to balance overhead and fast growth. And we remember the support we got in those early days from investors and fellow startups. Now, with the Dialpad Fast Start Program, we can do our part to help the entire venture-backed startup community communicate more effectively, and to enable them to build amazing disruptive companies."

To see if your organization qualifies for the Dialpad Fast Start Program, visit http://hello.dialpad.com/faststart.

Dialpad's pure-cloud solution business communications platform does not require any on-premises servers, storage or hardwired phones, freeing customers and their IT teams from the burden of administering and managing traditional infrastructures that cost, rather than contribute to, business growth. Dialpad can be deployed in minutes, enabling organizations of any size to immediately derive more value from their shift to the cloud by better connecting offices and anywhere workers. Through simply logging into the application interface, employees are immediately empowered to connect and collaborate in whatever format they prefer — voice, video, messaging or SMS — on any device, anywhere and at any time. Approximately 85 percent of Dialpad users are completely free of their desk phones and have cut the cord on legacy technology.

Venture capital firms can contact Dialpad to get their portfolio companies added to the program. So far, active portfolio companies backed by the following firms qualify for the Dialpad Fast Start Program:

About Dialpad
Dialpad is the Business Communications Platform. Available on any device, anywhere, Dialpad includes voice, video, messaging and meetings; and is integrated with Microsoft Office 365 and G Suite. Dialpad has 45,000 customers, including 65 percent of the Fortune 500, high-growth enterprises and forward thinking organizations including Uber, Vivint Solar, Betterment, Stripe, Postmates, Quora, Denison University, and Netflix. Dialpad is funded by Amasia, Andreessen Horowitz, Felicis Ventures, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Softbank and Work-Bench. For more information, visit dialpad.com and follow @DialpadHQ on Twitter.

SOURCE Dialpad